The trial of general mosquito

CHAPTER ONE Torgbui Fomeaka is the chief of Agbovega and the father of Dumega Agbui Fomeaka, Lumor Fomeaka and Abraham Johnson Amegah, the youngest of the three brothers. Dumega Agbui Fomeaka, alias Fusese Benayetsia Avufeglamedorna, ‘the hard bone says it stays over night in a dog’s mouth.’ is the Awadada of the 37 villages and heir apparent to the Awadada Stool. He combined traditional African religious practice with occasional Church activities with dexterity to the discomfort of his younger brother Abraham Johnson Amegah, the village Catechist, Church Elder and later Pastor of the local Church. Agbui respected the freedom of worship of other religions and had often found some doctrines of the new way of life quite intriguing.

For example, his brother, Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah had always said that when you are slapped, you should simply turn the other side of your face for another dose of slap. This same Abraham Johnson, kept telling people that if you want to enter the Kingdom of Heaven you should be like a child. Which child would you slap, in Bole-Bamboi, Banda, Bomigo, Bleamezado, Bontibor, Bolgatanga or Brewaniase and expect him to simply turn the other side of his cheek for another slap? Incredible! If you were an elderly person, the child would retaliate by stoning you, for slapping him without provocation. If you were his age mate, he would return the slap in a reflex action and warn you, with another slap, to be of good behaviour next time.

Agbui Fomeaka was well known through the 37 villages of the traditional area and even beyond.

People from surrounding villages and towns like, Dzelukope, Kedzi, Vodza,

Kedzikope, Abutiakope, Nukpesekope, Vui, Tettekope, Norlime, Adzido, Whuti, Savietula, Atorkor, Dzita, Anyanui, Bomigo, Agbledomi, Tegbi, Anyako, Abor, Atiavi, Alakple, Tsiame, Akatsi, Tadzewu, Ziope Asafotsi, Avenorfeme, Agbedrafor and Ativigbor, in the Gold Coast or Aborgakope, Kposukope, Datsomokope, Adukpokope, Dorfekope, Adrakpo, Detsideke, Kpave, Kpoyi, Lakui, Adzakpa, Nyative, Kpeve, Bludokope, Amusukodzi, Wukpo, Agou, Kpalime, Nyamesiva, Tovega, Badza, Keve, Kodzoviakope, Badugbe, Zowula and AnechoGlidzi, in French Togoland, were familiar with stories concerning Dumega Agbui Fomeaka of

Agbovega. His exploits were rather too fresh in their minds to need a reminder. He was a man who was all out to preserve everything left behind by his forebears. He always went about criticising people, who had abandoned their own way of life in exchange for the life styles of the White man and were increasingly copying the White man and looking down on their own way of life. Anywhere he saw young men gathered he would go and ask them questions, and give then talks on his own convictions. He would say in high-sounding phrases that: “There is the need to develop and inculcate a sense of imagination, originality and critical mindedness in the youth as well as the ability to think constructively and open-mindedly.

There is need for critical judgement, firmness of purpose, strength of character and commitment to duty, to equip us with appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes to meet the development aspirations of the black man”.

Agbui knew where his fortune was. Yes he knew. It was in giving counsel at the courts of traditional rulers as a “lawyer”. In fact he prided himself with being the most legal minded person among the people of the 37 villages. No doubt he was as yet regarded as such.

Whenever Agbui trumpeted his successes, he would recall how he won his most famous case against the Canton, and how he caused the Canton to be beaten at Kpalime for ruling partially in a case against him.

The story of how it all happened is still told in Agbovega. It came to pass that Abraham Johnson Amegah Jnr; the son of Mr. Abraham Johnson Amegah passed the entrance exams for college. To honour this young scholar his father organised a grand party. All the prominent men from the surrounding villages were invited. It happened that Torgbui Zormelo was among the invited guests Children said behind his back that his name means ‘a crocodile in a pot’.

Torgbui Zormelo “Fofonyevi” meaning my father’s son. Torgbui Zormelo was a young man barely thirty-five years. He was called Torgbui only in recognition of his position as a divisional chief and in respect of the stool he occupied, but not on account of his age. It was widespread in those days that, Torgbui Zormelo’s mother was believed to have been put in the family way by Torgbui Fomeaka, Agbui’s father, but the woman’s parents refused to allow her to marry Fomeaka and forced the girl to marry with Torgbui Zormelo’s father. Agbui’s remark was an allusion to this episode. Torgbui Zormelo had himself heard this story, but nobody has

2

ever had the effrontery to tell him in the face, as Agbui had done. Having understood what Agbui meant by “Fofonyevi” he was set on his nerves beyond measure.

Before the elders could bring home to him the need to exercise patience, he had made references to Agbui’s bald head. When the case was taken to the court of the Canton, the rulings were in favour of Torgbui Zormelo. Agbui was to pacify Torgbui Zormelo with on ram and two bottles of Schnapps. Agbui expressed his disapproval with the ruling and petitioned the court to reconsider its decision. From there Agbui went straight to the Commandant at Kpalime and filed an appeal against the ruling of the Canton, by demanding from the Commandant whether it was a crime to call a man “Fofonyevi” which literally means “my father’s son”.

The Ex-serviceman-French-Commandant could not bring himself to understanding why the calling of a man “my father’s son” should necessitate the slaughtering of a sheep and the presentation of two bottles of schnapps. He therefore declared the case null and void.

The Commandant warned the Canton to stop doing anything that would bring the image of the French Colonial Administration into disrepute. The Commandant reminded him that they were on a pacification mission of the primitive tribes of the Lower Volta.

He stated that:

‘Undergraduates in France, seduced by changes in journalistic fashion are demanding to be taught the history of black Africa. We have always told them that perhaps in future, there may be some African history to teach. At the moment, there is none. There is only the history of the White man in Africa. The rest is darkness and darkness is not a subject of history. You as a black Canton are privileged to be an instrument in making history for Africans in Africa through helping to carry the burden of pacifying the primitive tribes of the Lower Volta. The folklore of your people that keeps changing like a chameleon depending on who narrated it is not history. History is the written record of significant events of the past. Nothing worth recording took place in Africa before our coming. I think you now understand why you have to remove your hat any time you see a white man. Never do anything that will aggravate the already heavy burden of pacifying the primitive tribes of the Lower Volta. Go home and be of good behaviour.’ The Canton and his entourage left for home feeling very empty, with an emptiness that was not altogether imaginary.

3

This incident was followed by period of acute ill feeling between Agbui and the Canton. After some time the ill will faded away and was replaced by goodwill between them. Agbui eventually became a close associate of the Canton. The Canton sometimes invited Agbui to his court whenever there was a crucial matter to settle. Agbui gladly and devotedly honoured most of these invitations.

Hand in hand with these voluntary judicial functions, Agbui also practised as physician among the people of the 37 villages. He went about the villages diagnosing and prescribing cures to people suffering from various diseases. He could inject people. Nobody knew he had no accreditation to do what he was doing. But most people respected him and depended on his service to solve or compound their health problems. He was the only person who sacrificed himself to bring both preventive and curative health services to the people in this part of the world. There were no health centres in any of the 37 villages. The nearest ones were in Keta or Agou, several miles away in opposite directions.

Agbui had an ancient hypodermics syringe, which he claimed to have bought from someone who ever worked at the Health Centre in Keta. At each court he would boast and call himself names. He would say “I am a traditional legal practitioner. There is none in the whole land but me”. He would then recite some ancient incantations in an equally ancient manner. He would then pull his beard and straighten an imaginary tie onto his coat and say, “Enye Glaminado, Gadaglaminado a bottle does not dance on a stone. The drum that was beaten for traditional religious priests to dance to was beaten for a Christian and he exclaimed the tune is remarkable.

I am the notorious nose that builds its camp on a man’s face. When a goat meant for sacrifice extricates itself from the hang rope and takes refuge in the bush, the fetish priest naturally becomes angry.” And he would walk majestically as though he were the goat that had just extricated itself from the hang rope of a fetish priest. “I have never lost a case ever since I began to practise as a traditional lawyer and an advocate of self-government for the Blackman”. He would declare. As he said this, he would straighten an imaginary tie onto his coat and feel important, as though he had just won another case in the court of a traditional chief.

4

Agbui often wore a blue-black coat. It was always neat. This coat went with a cream pair of trousers. It was reasonably big to match the coat above it. He had a big pair of military boots to go with the above combination. This pair of solid boots, the story goes, was a legacy bequeathed to him by an uncle, who was reported to have seen action fighting in the land of White man, during the Second World War. Agbui was bald-headed this made him easily identifiable, wherever he was. He was heavily bearded and tall. His beard was linked to the remaining fragments of hair at side of his head.

As though in a mutual union, his moustache had merged with his beard.

What he lost above, he gained below. He would explain that, he was bald because his head was loaded with high voltages of rare wisdom, uncommon common sense, to such an explosive degree that, there was no other conceivable way out, then to allow a reasonable volume of this privileged accumulation of knowledge to escape via his head; hence the hair at the top, had to give way to save his head from explosion.

Agbui had the day before contracted some men from Kpave to come and do some work on the farm for his wife, Nazario Afi De-Souza. When the men arrived on the day after Agbui had disappeared from home, there was nobody to lead them to the farm.

“Could he have

forgotten?� The woman wondered. She was, however, obliged to believe her husband had intentionally left home. She knew this was what he would do. He said things he would not do to please her. Promise upon promises, which were never fulfilled. Anytime she complained him, he would feign anger and leave the house.

Afi De-Souza had five children; three promising boys and two beautiful girls. Gomligo the eldest and Agbadzanyi the youngest and was only then beginning to make an effort at walking.

The rest are, Agbenyega, Enyonam and Lebene, in that order, in between Gomligo and Agbadzanyi.

Gomligo and Agbadzanyi were at the Agbovega Roman Catholic Primary School. Afi DeSouza must prepare breakfast for the children. She looked into the basket that contained fish.

5

Alaas! There was no fish. All she saw was an assembly of half a dozen heads of “Keta School Children”. She shook the basket and the apparently alive heads of “Keta School Children” gathered in one corner of the basket “Humm Agbedefu” exclaimed the poor woman, putting the basket at its place. It was a Saturday, and the children would not to school. The day before was the village market day. She had asked her husband for money to purchase some fish.

Agbui explained that, it was not necessary because he had given money to a woman who hailed from Denu and came to Agbovega every market day, to buy fish for the family, since it was less expensive at Denu. He promised collecting this consignment by the close of the day.

Agbui had in the late hours of that market day collected the consignment and had given it to a well-known girl who came to his children regularly, to send to his wife. Unfortunately, the girl had forgotten to do so, until late the following evening, after Afi De-Souza and her children had returned from farm. Agbui then set out for Horsuglo’s palm wine tapping ground with over a handful of the fish he had collected from the woman from Denu.

Afi De-Souza could not, but tell the men from Kpave that, since her husband was not present, it was not possible to engage then on the farm. She, however, knew why the work could not be done. It had little to do with Agbui’s absence. After all, she knew the farm and could lead them there. The open secret was that, there was no fish at home with which to feed the workers. The men became angry and voiced out their discontentment at copiously as they thought proper. Agbui had breached the articles of the contract, and they were angry.

6

CHAPTER TWO Afi De-Souza had settled down to prepare breakfast for the children. She used a tin of sardines. The children liked nothing better than sardines. Enyonam and Lebene struggled for the empty tin. In the end Enyonam won, not only on account of her age but also because of her strength. Agbadzanyi kept wailing in the corner because his expectation was not met. He normally had the empty tins of sardines used in the house. It was always the prerogative of the youngest child at any given time. But today’s was contrary to the rule. His mother gave him a piece of sardines to compensate him for the container he had lost. When they finished breakfast they left for farm. That was how it was on Saturdays. They all went to farm after breakfast.

Gomligo took the lead. Close at his heels was Agbenyega who was followed immediately by their dog, Fofo Tsoekewo that means, “Father Forgive them” in Ewe. Their mother brought up the rear. At her front were Enyonam and Lebene. The path was not weedy. It was cleared a few days before. Gomligo hated the dew. He would brush the dew with a reasonably long stick, while standing quite a distance from the spot making sure no dew touched him. Today he was briskly and enthusiastically marching along the path as he sang his favourite song, ‘Baa baa black sheep, Have you any wool’. He would prolong the last line as he repeatedly sang this song over and over again. “Down the laneeee!” Agbenyega would join him, but Gomligo would prolong the end beyond the reach of Abgenyega’s vocal cord and end the song that he had so much distorted, alone.

As they went along, Afi De-Souza kept turning in her mind, the circumstances that conspired against her and made her marriage to Agbui the tale of the 37 villages. It was a conspiracy of natural and man-made circumstances. The story is still told in Agbovega. Agbui was a man endowed with much rhetoric. He was a great orator. He said everything he wanted to in a way that attracted the attention of most people who listened to him. He therefore endeared himself to the hearts of many people. On account of this singular quality he had many admirers. He was a favourite of the people whenever it came to making public speeches and declarations.

Whenever he spoke, his sense rudimentary logic and the eloquence of his speech were remarkable and convincing.

7

The story is still told in Agbovega of how Agbui managed to win Afi De-Souza for a wife.

Those with good memories say that Afi was the daughter of an illustrious and an illustrated Lome merchant of Brazilian origin, Nazario Roberto De-Souza. At a tender age, Afi was taken abroad to Conakry in Guinea. Her uncle Alberto De-Souza, who was doing business there thought it judicious to adopt Afi to enable her pursue her education there. This decision in no small measure warmed the hearts of her parents who were determined to educate their children.

Afi De-Souza started school in Conakry and was soon making enviable progress. This was reflected in her terminal reports. Her performance was good and her character was worthy of emulation. A year to the completion of her education, Afi unexpectedly fell ill. All the hospitals in Conakry were visited with no signs of recovery in her health. No doctor could diagnose the sickness, let alone prescribe a cure, much to the embarrassment and disappointment of her uncle. From day to day the illness grew from bad to worse. Finally her uncle, Alberto De-Souza had no other option than to bring the young lass home to her parents in Lome, before the unforeseen happened to her. One arrival at Lome, from Conakry, Alberto De-Souza and his brother, Roberto Nazario De-Souza agreed not to send Afi to any other hospital. This time, they consented to trying a traditional herbalist after consultation with the elders of the family. If Afi was to survive, then the going to a traditional healer was the only thing worth trying. After taking a look at a catalogue of herbalists and their exploits, it was decided that Afi should be taken to Kpave where the services of the most renowned traditional medicine man and fetish priest in the land could be employed. This reputed medicine man was Dumega Sogboshie. He was wonderful and full of powers unknown in the whole land. It is said, that as young man of eighteen years, dwarfs carried Dumega Sogboshie away for well over one month.

The story goes that when he was young, his main sport was the hunting of birds with his catapult. This sport often took him deep into the forest. One day when he was going on his usual rounds in the forest, it happened that he saw a strange bird. This bird was so beautiful that Sogboshie swore to capture it before going home. The forest was very dense, and it was rather difficult to see glimpses of the sun in this forest. He chased this bird until he came to a

8

spot in the forest that was swept clean. No weeds grew there. It was just at the foot of an anthill. Just as Sogboshie was turning in his mind that could have come to sweep the place, the bird flew out of sight.

In his tiredness, he sat at the foot of the anthill leaned against it and fell asleep. As he slept the occupants of the anthill came out upon him and carried him into their world beneath the ground. When Sogboshie woke up, the story goes, he saw some men around him. They were very short and would hardly measure three feet and yet every feature on them lent credence to their adulthood. These men kept Sogboshie for three moons, during which they taught him how to cure many types of diseases. They fed him on banana throughout his stay in the anthill.

On morning, Sogboshie woke up and found himself at the outskirts of Kpave and walked home. In fact there was a great feast in his honour, for his parents had given up every hope of ever seeing him. This was because all the three soothsayers consulted had claimed he had been murdered.

This was the person to whom Afi was sent to receive treatment. Agbui was Sogboshie’s best friend and they did several things in common. Agbui often went to Sogboshie and helped him in his rituals when the farming season was over and there was not much to do at the courts of the elders. Nazario Roberto De-Souza narrated the sad story of his daughter’s illness with a feeling of disappointment and resignation. Agbui was then thirty and unmarried. he was hard working, intelligent and held in high esteem in the whole area. But one thing Agbui would not do was to take a wife. A good many young women would have approached him to have him for a husband, but they were limited by custom, women do not propose to men, for fear of loosing their pride and credibility. Agbui was such a selective person. The qualities he had been looking for, he could not fined in a single individual woman. Agbui was after high-birth, beauty by his own definition and education. On seeing the tall beautiful light-skinned Nazario Afi De-Souza, Agbui felt irresistibly attracted to her and thought, if he was to get married desirably, then Afi was the only choice or none. Agbui, though a renowned traditional legal consultant and farmer in the locality, often thought farming was too laborious a way of earning living for women. He therefore wanted a woman who had some experience in trading and the

9

daughter of the famous Lome merchant, Nazario Roberto De-Souza, was worthy of any investment.

When Agbui Fomeaka and Dumega Sogboshie went to consult the gods, they held a short discussion. When they came back at last, Afi was desperately rolling on the ground and wailing sorrowfully. It was pathetic to have the displeasure of seeing how tears rolled from her eyes she appeared to have reached the end of her life. Thereupon Sogboshie disclosed that Afi was the daughter of a sea mermaid, before running away into this world of the living. The mermaid had warned that a series of calamities was to befall her and the final one may see her being carried to her grave, the final destination of mortal man under the immortal sun. If Afi was to stay alive, then she ought to be dedicated to the mermaid. She was therefore to remain at the priest’s disposal till after one year, by which time all the rituals necessary to liberate her would have been performed.

After this rather unexpected and unconvincing disclosure, Nazario Roberto De-Souza would not make his stand known. The whole matter sounded ridiculous and unbelievable to Alberto De-Souza, Afi’s uncle. To Afi’s mother, the revelation was convincing because her typical Lome background and up bringing made her highly susceptible to belief in the super natural.

For it reminded her of what she had heard in her youth of people being sent into the world of the living from the spirit world by gods, who only wanted them to be dedicated to them – the gods. What was more important she remembered a dream she had had some years before. In the dream she saw a mamiwatta sucking at her breast. When she narrated the dream to the “Josephs” in the area they said that she was likely to give birth to a child that might become a mamiwatta priest or priestess. Others interpreted the same dream that, witches and wizards were bent on destroying her through the sucking of her blood with use of a mamiwatta. Any doubt, therefore, that she readily ascribed to what Sogboshie said?

Nazario Roberto De-Souza consented to the commencement of the cure. After all what was vital and viable was her life and a delay was not in anybody’s interest. The illness was becoming serious. Alberto De-Souza sensed something particularly fishy about the whole affair and wondered whether there was not an element of foul play at work. But since it was beyond his control, he kept whatever doubts he entertained to himself. He did not want to

10

appear suspicious, but kept everything within, so that he might not incur the displeasure of the lanky priest and his zealous supporter, at whose mercy they were. He feared the fetish priest might even refuse to embark upon the curing rituals should he appear suspicious. And that would be fatal. He therefore played passive and never openly expressed his consent, nor his disapproval.

Sogboshie and Agbui began the curing rites in a business-like manner. For that was how it was with Sogboshie. He was energetic about everything he did, and did it well. He was very officious and showed a double sense of affability to his guests. Agbui’s interest in the rituals was high. He went from room to room with herbs in hand in response to what Sogboshie instructed. Afi was carried into one of the rooms. It was a dark room. It appeared as though it was the hometown of all spiders, for the cobwebs that clouded the ceiling were intimidating.

One saw the jubilant spiders chasing their victims about here and there. These victims were numerous: houseflies, mosquitoes, moths and butterflies. In one corner of the room was a stout idol. A symbolic representation of one of the most powerful goods Sogboshie possessed. It has two big white eyes, with ironically no black spot in the centre. The idol had eyes without eyebrows, limbs that never bent, a nose that breathed no oxygen nor let out any carbon dioxide.

A protruding stomach that hosted no intestines and a big head that was devoid of brains and nerves, nevertheless, powerful this was power that man could not see. This was supernatural power, power that was not of this world. There were bottles and other containers of varying sizes here and there, gourds and calabashes that held different and various potent medicines in trust. A string made from raffia palm leaves was tied around Afi’s neck. Agbui took a sharp razor and began to cut the strategic joints of the poor little girl, while Sogboshie smeared the cut spots with black power. Seven cowries were put into a calabash from which she was to drink water. No one else drank from this calabash. Not even Sogboshie himself.

The curing rituals went on for seven days and seven nights. During this period Sogboshie and Agbui pre-occupied themselves with offering prayers at this and that idol and poring libation here and there, beseeching the gods of the earth and the heavens to help them and return the poor girl’s life to her. Cutting of joints and the smearing into them of black powder went on unabated all this time. Very little room was left for idling. All was business and real business

11

only. After the seventh day and the seventh night the girl began to recover. She was now able to talk. She could eat but very little. She walked about, though rather unsteadily. She had begun to discover she was not in Conakry, and questioned her mother about it, and demanded an explanation. Her mother told her everything that had happened to her, and how she should become a devotee, without option, to the priest of mamiwatta for one year.

She opposed the idea of becoming a devotee of a mamiwatta. She was appalled by the idea of having to stay in such a remote corner of the world after experiencing good living standards in Conakry. She called Kpave “a jungle fit only for gorillas”. She said, she preferred dying on her feet, to living on her knees. “What was life, if the free will was absent” she asked her mother.

After her parents and uncle had persuaded her, she consented to staying behind reluctantly.

She was given promises, some of which were periodic visits by her parents and a visit to her uncle in Conakry whenever she so desired.

Alberto De-Souza left for Conakry after three weeks. Nazario Roberto De-Souza and his wife also left for Lome one week after Alberto De-Souza’s departure. That was fifteen years ago.

Today she is Agbui’s wife. The more she thought about the circumstances the more confused and bitter she became.

12

CHAPTER

THREE

There was going to be Ade rites at Horsuglo’s tapping village and Agbui was to officiate as the principal hunter. Ade is a shrine or cult that is possessed by almost all hunters in this corner of the world of the living. It is a kind of sympathetic magic. The belief is held among these people that every animal has a spirit, and once killed, especially the bigger ones, like the elephant, the lion, the leopard or the buffalo, which haunted the hunter. To insulate themselves against any trouble, that the killing of a wild animal might provoke, pacification rites are performed to atone for the killing and to appease the spirits of the animals. This prevented them from inciting other animals from avenging their death. What is more, it is held among these people that, when the spirits of animals killed were pacified the hunter all the more had animals coming his way whenever and wherever he went hunting.

The origin of the Ade Cult (Sympathetic Magic) is invariably as old as the profession hunting itself. It originated long, long ago somewhere in the Nile Valley where hunting is said to have first begun. As animals got more and more scared, hunting became more and more difficult. To cope up with the demands imposed by the scarcity of the animals, which constituted the lion’s share of man’s diet, they evolved and developed a type of sympathetic magic that grew to become the Ade Cult today. In the evenings, especially on the eve of the day they were to go on hunting expeditions the men grouped themselves into two. One group played animals and went on all four legs, like the animals in George Orwell’s Animal Farm, hid themselves all about the village as animals were wont to do in the bush. The second group played hunters and went about with sticks and clubs, wooden swords and spears and assiduously looked for the “animals”. When a man saw any of these “animals” he simply said “I have seen and killed you already” and took the “animal” by the legs to the camp where they normally made bon-fires before embarking upon this laborious exercise. A man who against all odds managed to capture any of these “animals” on the eve of the hunting day was believed to be more likely to make a good catch during the next hunting expedition.

With the years came certain modifications. People no longer grouped into two. Instead every household in every village had a circular fence. This fence was usually equal to or less than three feet in diameter. A circle was described on the ground and pegs measuring roughly three 13

feet were fixed all along the circumference of the circle. These pegs were driven into the ground and each was only as tall as the one next to it. The pegs after having been driven into the ground showed about two and half feet above the ground. This fence, the stories go, was inhabited by all the spirits of the animals ever killed by any particular household. Locating these fences under trees is more often the rule than the exception. The fence harboured a pot in the centre. There was always water in this pot. This water is believed to very powerful. When a man was haunted by the spirit of an animal he had killed but whose pacification rites were yet to be performed he simply washed his face with this water after solemnly promising to perform the pacification rites. No sooner was this done than the spirit stopped, though temporarily, haunting the hunter.

Any such Ade Cult fence hosted among other things the skulls, the jaw bones, the horns, the neck bones, the lag bones and the waist bones of the big animals ever killed, the horns of the big animals were kept in boxes and brought out when and only when there was going to be Ade rites. These bones of varying sizes, shapes, colour and magnitude were rhythmically beaten in accompaniment with the drums. The smaller ones made melodious treble, whilst the bigger ones boomed out metallic and thunderous sound.

When beaten by experienced local

musicians, the music produced was melodious and thrilling. The white man who could not make much of all this declared it was but a phenomenon deserving nothing short of absolute condemnation and destruction. And he would swear that it was a primitive custom, though he would with satisfaction eat of the symbolic flesh of Jesus to banish a spiritual hanger and drink of his symbolic blood to assuage a divine thirst. That was not being primitive according to the civilisation crusaders who are both players and referees in the game of value judgement.

Horsuglo’s father, just like Torgbui Fomeaka had been a great hunter and had killed an elephant before, the skull of which still lies in the Ade fence at Horsuglo’s village. After his father’s death, Horsuglo had to take charge of the Cult. The week before Horsuglo’s first wife’s second born – an eighteen year old boy, had fallen ill. When the soothsayers were consulted, it came to light that Horsuglo’s father was aggrieved because of Horsuglo’s failure to perform the Ade rites the previous year. His departed father in conspiracy with the Cult of Ade therefore, wanted to punish him by taking the boy’s life. Having been horrified by this

14

revelation, Horsuglo gathered together all that went into performing the rites so that the child might live. The things required did not exclude one goat, one cock, a pot of corn-flour, a pot full of herbs and a calabash full of water, two bottles of schnapps, one big pot of palm wine and five bottles of akpeteshie.

At such Ade rites the animals were not immediately slaughtered. They were simply tied up and put before the assembly of bones and horns, in front of the fence. A series of thrilling songs dedicated, as it were, to the Cult were, sung for a while. If the Cult would accept the offer, the animals to be sacrificed became unconscious as they sang the songs. If the goat or the fowl would not go into coma the ceremony was abandoned and soothsayers were consulted for further revelations. This was because the animals to be sacrificed should necessarily become unconscious as a token sign of acceptance to the Cult before they were slaughtered. The blood would be sprinkled on the sticks of the fence, and the tree under which it stood; feathers would be attached to the blood. And the feathers in the blood would look like cotton wool in a big wound. Then the drums would beat and renowned hunters would dance and imitate their exploits of old. They would track imaginary animals, with miniature guns in hand, each man according to what he had experienced in one of his most outstanding hunting expeditions.

Then a man would hold a miniature gun and track an imaginary animal. He would raise his head as though an animal were in sight. He would hurry up towards a particular direction, then begin to walk more and more consciously, hold the ‘gun’ in position and let go the ‘trigger’ in accompaniment with the sound kpooh he would then run up to the spot and remove his matchet and hatch the victim When Agbui got there, the people had gathered and were impatiently waiting for him.

Everything was in place for the rites. After a warm handshake and cordial greetings the rites began. Agbui was to preside over the affairs. Horsuglo knelt down in front of Agbui with the things before him and said “Agoo. ……Agoo…agoo” After the third agoo, Agbui responded thus: ‘Who are you that I see in possession of one big goat, one cock, a pot of palm wine, a pot of herbs two bottles of schnapps, five bottles of akpeteshie and a lot more, kneeling so humbly before the great Ade Cult of our ancestors of blessed memory’

15

“It is me Horsuglo, the grandson of Gbodoglatsi and the son of Kpakpakpui Ekpe” replied Horsuglo “What could it be that so much afflicts you, that you are obliged to equip yourself as if you were banished from your hometown? “Agbui interrogated”. In answer, Horsuglo said ,

“Though it might so appear that I was banished from one, far be this it from that abominable happening. I have come to the cult of Ade to do one thing and one thing only. I have come to ask for forgiveness”. “What could you have done that the wrath of Ade that consumes like bush-fire in the harmattan should come near you?” Agbui implored. “Last Year’ Horsuglo began rather sorrowfully “due to circumstances beyond my control, I failed to perform the rites of Ade. My son has fallen ill and when I consulted diviners, it was disclosed that my failure to perform the rites was what was causing the illness. I have, therefore, come humbly to do the rites so that the anger of the Cult might wither away and the illness thrown into the sea”.

Agbui came in once more and demanded. “Should your petition be granted, what would you do to the cult of Ade”? “I shall, as long as I remain living thing worship and proclaim the powers and might of Ade to the entire world around”. Horsuglo pledged. In reply, Agbui – the principal hunter, who presided over the affairs said ‘I have accepted your plea and offerings but not in my capacity as the principal hunter, but as a mere servant and humble worshiper of the Cult of Ade. I shall beseech the Cult on your behalf so that the wrath of he that consumes like bush-fire in the harmattan and destroys like thunder bolt might not come anywhere near your doors”.

Having collected these things, Agbui stood up, knotted his cloth around his waist, removed his atsokotta (slippers) and with a glassful of schnapps in hand, took steps away from the gathering and facing the East began to pray: “Agoo; agoo; agoo; I have said agoo, three times Ade of old, who stayed at home And game had the desired peace of mind The bullets went and never returned The going an intriguing drama 16

The coming broke a neck The heroic gun that proves itself The veritable loaded gun That destroys a generation of game You disappeared and anxiety grew Among your friends and foes Who exclaimed you should speak In the tongue of your forebears You returned and they petitioned You to continue with your exploits Heed your glorious accolade And give ears to our humble petitions” Agbui paused and looked round at the audience, with his face beaming profoundly with satisfaction.

“Not long ago”, he continued, “Horsuglo’s son fell ill. And when those whose when all others say there is nothing visible were consulted, it came to light that Horsuglo’s failure to perform the rites last year has nearly exhausted your patience and you have let loose your wrath upon his household.

This, we hear, is only the beginning of a series of disasters you are

contemplating to inflict upon your humble servant. This disclosure has horrified us, and we have condemned Horsuglo’s ability to keep your hungry for well over ten moons”. “We are therefore on your behalf, collecting everything that goes into performing the rites, and what you have demanded as pacification. We beseech you on his behalf. Let the illness go back into the sea. If it is his enemies or any other unknown evil spirit that wishes to use your famous and glorious name for this inglorious and diabolical destruction of the child, may you rebuke him strongly and break his neck”. Agbui ended and then poured the glassful of schnapps on the ground saying; “Drinks are meant for the enemies, lifting up the calabash full of water he said, “Yours is cool water. You should therefore allow your temper to cool down like this cool water forever and ever in the name of Ade and Sogbo Lisa”

17

As Agbui took his seat, the other hunters greeted him saying “You are welcome, visitor to the world of the departed hunters. How are they fairing”? They demanded simultaneously “Not badly” Agbui replied and pulled his beard in a whimsical and humorous manner. He was a man with a whimsical sense of humour and could make people laugh heartily with his humorous utterances.

‘Did you see Horsuglo’s father? One of the hunters asked.

‘Did you tell him that there was poor harvest because it did not rain well last year’?

Another hunter demanded from Agbui ‘Why should I remind him of something he is aware of’?

Agbui replied and sat down.

After Agbui had poured the libation, which is the curtain raiser to the rituals, the pacification rites began in earnest. Drinks were served to all. Some drank akpeteshie and the others helped themselves to the pot of palm wine. As the drinking went on, the various bones and horns were washed clean with the herbs in the big pot. As they did so they repeatedly said “We are washing you today, prior to the great feast you are to have. May you also wash us clean like that”.

After the washing they cleaned the bones and the horns with rags and smeared them with red and white chalk, saying as they did so: “We today, are smearing you with your traditional pomade, do smear us in the like manner, so that we might also become flexible, flexible in our thoughts and our actions like you. The horns were rhythmically beaten in accompaniment with the drums. The hunters danced as they waited for the dzemkple to cook. Thrilling Ade songs were sung. The music produced was wonderful and the hunters danced ferociously.

When the dzemkple was finally ready some meat was torn into pieces and some corn flour was added to it. It was mixed in a calabash. The parts used for this crucial rite were specific. They included the liver, the lungs, the intestines and the tongue. These parts were removed before pepper and salt were added. This is because the Cult of Ade ate neither salt nor pepper. The mixture was sprinkled on the various bones and all the horns the symbolic representatives living animals, which were being pacified. As they sprinkled the pieces of meat about, they

18

would say after the principal hunter ‘Eat of this meat and banish our hunger; so that starvation might not come near our homes. As often as you do this for us, so often shall we perform the rites dedicated to you, in remembrance of you’?

The dzemkple was distributed in ranks.

The principal hunter and Horsuglo had theirs

separately and the other renowned hunters also had theirs separately. The young men who were now only beginning to make an effort at hunting had theirs, the invited guests had theirs, the drummers had theirs and finally some women sympathizers and other onlookers also had theirs, each group according to its importance.

“So you have given me only a bone”. That was Abotsi, complaining from among the group of young hunters. “Anytime we are asked to share meat Kpogo would always give me bones, as if I were a dog” Abotsi complained bitterly.

‘This reminds me of the time Torgbui Fomeaka performed his Ade rites some three moons ago; that was what Kpogo did, he gave me only a bone. But I said nothing. And today, he still feels that, the dog that I am, I must contend myself with bones’.

Abotsi deplored.

“Anytime there is something to be shared again, I shall not share it. Come and have a look at what I have taken myself, no less a bone than yours. As for you, everywhere you are, you would always make your greed glaring. Your inability to conceal your greed has become a major flaw in you. Try and hide it a bit. After all how many animals could you kill the previous hunting season?”

Kpogo retorted in self-defence.

“You this Kpogo”; Abotsi began “Is it because of my inability to kill more animals than everyone else that you have deliberately mapped me out for only bones? I now understand your unholy behaviour towards me. I appreciate your resolute stand in making a dog of me.

No doubt you had the nerves of going into Kwadzogah’s wife at Kpave. The ram they collected from you serves you well” Abotsi said in retaliation.

19

“Mine, without the slightest doubt, is better than yours. Do not give me cause to remind you of only one of your least disgusting criminal activities, which has become the talk of the town.

That abominable need of yours, you cannot have me believe that you have already forgotten how you cohabited with Mansavi’s elder sister, who was then a whole decade behind the threshold to puberty. I need not recount the expenses you incurred before she could start walking once more, including the goat you had to offer for purifying the land, for doing it in the bush. My proud friend, help me to keep your mouth shut in this business, before I open a worse page in your life history”.

That was Kpogo, trying to counteract what Abotsi had said against him. They were stopped before the matter could develop into an exchange of blows.

Abotsi was one the sons of Torgbui Fomeaka. He had attempted learning blacksmithing but could not complete. He could, however, make traps and hoes and knives. Abotsi had signed an agreement to undertake a three-year apprenticeship course at the forge of one Gadasu.

Unfortunately, his master sacked him for unruly behaviour and gross disrespect. Abotsi was famous for trouble making and rumour mongering all about the 37 villages.

Kpogo on the other hand, was the son of one Amamu. Amamu died before Kpogo could become a man. And his mother, Gbeda Ablormeti, got married to Gadasu, the blacksmith from whom Abotsi had attempted learning blacksmithing. The two men were never known to have agreed on any issue. They were stopped before they could decide the victor, with their fists.

They had both come from Agbovega to witness the Ade Rites Horsuglo was performing.

The songs sounded high in the air.

The drums beat feverishly and the hunters danced

ferociously as if they were possessed. And the hunters would track imaginary animals with miniature guns in hand. Each according to what he experienced in one of his most outstanding hunting exploits. Then a man would hold a miniature gun in hand and track an imaginary animal. He would raise his head as though an animal were in sight. He would hurry up towards a particular direction, then he would walk calculatedly and more and more consciously, hold the ‘gun’ in position and let go the ‘trigger’ in accompaniment with the sound “Kpooo”. Then

20

he would run to the spot, remove his matchet and “hatch” the “game”. The song would go high: I have a drum song from afar Which I have hidden this far Dzatugbui has disturbed Henorga The beehive of songs from Agbovega I run amok at you in song today Flat-bottomed Dzatugbui of this day Your mother gave you a tribal mark To use as a prostitution trade mark You designed to get money from Henorga To sue your husband legitimate Hunorga To liberate you to Henorga in marriage A ploy to extend the trade of ages To the innocent composer of Agbovega To demobilise and desecrate Henorga

And bring into disrepute the songster of ages You have taken after your mother A replica of your grandmother Who were both celebrated bitches That roamed for men on beaches Let us sing a song of admonition For Dzatugbui and her great nation Before she wrecks eminent havoc On both herself and her great nation A song of primeval societal control

21

The controller of all forms of controls Drumming, singing and dancing went on deep into the night. The people began to disperse when night was approaching her prime. All that there was to be drunk was drunk and all that there was to be eaten was eaten. Most of the people had simply drunk too much to be conscious of what was happening. Agbui started for home with Abotsi and Kpogo and a few others. On the way to Agbovegah, Abotsi and Kpogo never talked to each other, or to the others. They were silent with guilt unknown and shame untold for one more time they have brought the name of Agbovegah into mud by their conduct. This was an anti-climax to the excellent performance by Agbui of Agbovegah.

22

CHAPTER FOUR Afi De-Souza and her children had had super and were telling stories, just in front of their kitchen. Boys from other neighbouring houses had come to join them. These new comers were not much interested in the stories they told, but only wanted to be near Afi’s daughters.

Enyonam had fully developed breast and Lebene’s on the other hand, had also become quite sizeable and solid, and attracted the young men like magnet would attract iron filings. Any doubt therefore that their house was one of the busiest on many a night, especially on moonlight nights? Today, there was no moon and the heavens were hanging loose on the earth and walk through the streets of Agbovegah was like a journey through the valley of the shadow of death.

“Once upon a time” Afi began. “Time, time” the children responded with energy.

“Long, long ago, even before your great-grandfather was born, Ananse, the spider was the wisest man on earth. It happened that Ananse was the only person who could mention the name of the king’s daughter. The king had sworn that anyone who could mention the name of his only daughter would have her hand in marriage.”

“It was customary for the king’s daughter and her attendants to sit under a big shade-tree in the court-yard. Ananse one night secretly climbed up onto this tree and spent the night in the tree.

The long awaited afternoon soon came and the king’s daughter with her attendants, appeared like an apparition, to sit under the tree to measure the treasures of her father in leisure and with pleasure. They soon started the game of “hide and seek” “Ananse carefully let down a mirror. One of the attendants, astonished at the prospects of a mirror dropping from a tree, shouted ‘Princess Xedenyuie, look at this miracle’. The Princess took the mirror and began looking into it. She saw another Princess who she thought was rather very beautiful”.

“Nobody ever saw a mirror in those days. Ananse had traveled to Arabia, very far away, where camels are used in crossing the sea of sand. Having succeeded in getting the princess’ name,

23

Ananse patiently waited for the princess and her attendants to depart before finally descending for home”.

“On the appointed day for the princess’ name-mentioning-competition, Ananse intentionally went late. The condition for entry into the competition was frightening. Any candidate who failed, on the first attempt, to successfully mention the name become a slave to the king forever. Despite this horrifying condition, knowledge of the beauty of the princess and the beauty of the knowledge of becoming sons-in-law of the king had drawn many young men into this self-enslavement. This competition was the seventh one. During the previous six, no individual contestant could mention the princess’ name. This competition provided the king with annual labour force of over one hundred able-bodied men, majority of whom he sold as slaves”.

“After every contestant had tried and failed, Ananse, a strong critic of the scheme, mounted the platform and after a little hesitation mentioned the princess’ name”.

“My lord the king, may you live forever; Our Honourable Queen, Glory and dominion be to your great name; The wise man of our noble court, May the universe uphold your unlimited wisdom; Distinguished divisional and vassal chiefs, Blessed be your chiefdoms; Invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, May you live to remember this memorable occasion”. Ananse paused.

“My entry into this traditional win-the-king’s-daughter-contest might appear strange to many people, particularly when I am one of the staunchest castigators and unflinching condemners of this royal scheme. My reason for participating this time round is simple. I am at the moment in the captivity of boredom. And I am inclined to think that gambling away my life into slavery would be a thrilling adventure.”

24

“In order not to waste the time of those gathered here, I humbly submit that the name of our noble princess is Xedenyuie. Xedenyuie means ‘safe journey’, in apparent sympathy for contestants who could not resist the prospects of becoming the king’s son-in-law”.

“Everyone was amazed when the king admitted Ananse had mentioned the name. A myth had been broken and the cheers were thunderous, the reverberations of which were heard in the heavens”.

“Much to the surprise of all the people who had come that day, Ananse opted for a cow, instead of having the king’s daughter to wife and assuming the enviable privilege of being the king’s son-in-law”.

The children began to laugh at the choice Ananse had made. Ananse, the children were inclined to believe, was less intelligent on this occasion.

“Ananse collected the cow and left behind the marvelously beautiful young princess and headed quickly for the next village. He would not take the cow to his house. His children and other family members were too greedy for his liking. He would not see much of the meat if he sent the cow home. All he needed was to get a man who was not clever and who would be willing to accompany him to where he would feast on the cow”.

“Ananse went about the villages looking for a man who was not wise, at worse not wiser than himself. Any man he met, he would ask, ‘which animal in the world walks on four legs in the morning and on two legs in the afternoon then on three legs in the evening?’ Every man he met gave him the correct answer to the question. Ananse thought he alone knew the answer.

He became suspicious of those who knew the answer and ranked them as wise men. Ananse wanted no wise man on this mission”.

“After going on this way for some time, he met the crow and when he asked the question, the crow simply crowed ‘kwan’. He asked again and the crow simply crowed again, ‘kwan’. To be

25

doubly sure he had discovered one of the greatest fools in living memory, Ananse asked the question the third time. And for the third time, the crow innocently crowed ‘kwan’. Having found the man he was looking for, Ananse implored the crow to accompany him to a place he did not name”.

“Early the next morning the two friends were heading for a place known to none of them.

Ananse held the rope of the cow and the crow carried the sack that contained the ingredients and a few cooking utensils. Ananse led the way and the crow brought up the rear. As they went along the crow deliberately left the sack that contained the ingredients and the cooking utensils on the way”.

“When they at last got to the place Ananse thought proper for feast, he realised to his astonishment that the crow had left behind the sack containing the cooking utensils and ingredients.

‘Where is the sack?”

Ananse demanded from the crow, fiercely.

‘Kwan’

answered the crow. Ananse patted the crow on the shoulder, in acknowledgement of his ‘stupidity’ and said ‘Hold the rope firm; I am going back for the sack containing the cooking utensils and ingredients. Do you understand, ‘Kwan’ replied the crow” “No sooner had Ananse left, than the crow quickly moved the cow far away into a dense forest.

He tied it to a tree. Before he left, he cut of the tail of cow and hurriedly flew to where Ananse had left him behind. He dug a hole and put the tail halfway into it and held the switch end in his hand. The crow started shouting to call Ananse stating that the earth was swallowing the cow and entreated him to run very fast to join the rescue mission. Ananse dashed to the spot in no time to help extricate the cow from the throat of mother earth. As soon as Ananse held the switch of the sinking cow, the crow suddenly let go the tail, and Ananse rolled over and fell a few metres away from the spot.

‘What a pity, the cow is gone’ the crow lamented. ‘If you had run faster, the cow would not have been completely swallowed’. The crow accused Ananse”.

“What? If you had not naively left the sack behind, we could both have started pulling it from the onset” Ananse retorted in great anger.

26

“No, that is not the case, you pulled too suddenly in your anxiety to save the cow from the earth’s throat………..”

“Goon gong goon gong goon gong” Boomed the hollow metal of the town crier. This was followed by his characteristically coarse voice. “Agoo, all sons and daughters of Agbovegah.

It is not for fun nor in vain that I am obliged to cry my lungs out at this time of the night, when even those who have been committed to the very bowels of mother earth, are beginning to make their triumphant entries into the world of the living, from their graves to keep watch over the village, to enable the living to ‘die a little’ till sunrise. Torgbui Fomeaka would have me announce to the whole village that Agbodzihu Aborgah’s final funeral rites would begin next market day at Abor with wake keeping. Food would be offered to the departed souls the following day. There will be Asafokaka, drumming and dancing on the third and fourth days respectively. The Nobody Drumming & Dancing Group would display their latest songs and dancing styles.”

“Goon gong goon gong goon gong” thundered the hollow metal once more.

That was Aziakpati Mekpana Tugbeo (The woodcarver-suitor cannot carve a beautiful lady for himself) the village-crier. Aziakpati had no wife. He could not convince any woman or her parents that he could pass for a husband. Aziakpati, who was almost forty, was very famous for his laziness. He did very little or no serious farming. Rather than farm, he identified himself much with tapping grounds. He would often over drink and vomit and go about the village shouting insults at anyone and everybody in the village. Anytime there was going to be a funeral, he was the happiest person. At any rate, he was the best crier among the 37 villagecriers. He executed this important public role of informing the people with a profound pride and devotion.

Afi De-Souza on hearing the funeral announcements felt disinclined to continue with the story.

She told the children that that was the end of the story. The children had heard stories before and on several occasions too, and were therefore not contented with the explanation she gave them. When she left them to say hello to a next compound neighbour, the children began to disperse for their houses.

27

Agbodzihu Aborgah was one of the sons of Torgbui Aborgah of Abor. Torgbui Aborgah had moved from Keta to settle permanently at Abor. At the age of thirty-one, after retiring from the West African Frontier Force in Accra, Agbodzihu left Abor for Obanda, a cocoa growing village in the Trans Volta Togoland, located to the north of Kadjebi. He had invested ten years of his most productive life and his retirement benefits, cultivating a cocoa farm at Obanda. He had grown quite wealthy by local standards. He owned and operated one of the biggest shops at Obanda at the time and possessed an Austin truck that he used as a commercial transport venture.

Agbodzihu was a jack-of-all-trades - a businessman, a cocoa farmer, a blacksmith, a carpenter, a mason, a tailor and indeed a driver. He took much pride in being an ex-serviceman and had often said that he learnt all these trades in the military. His dream was that, one day he would be counted among the men who took their destinies into their own hands. He would

put up

storey buildings in Accra, Abor, Hohoe, Ho and Lome, and use them as hotels. He would have loved to put one of the hotels in Keta, where he was born, but the sea has declared war on Keta and it would not be prudent to invest ones hard-earned-cocoa-money there yet. He would put the Keta project on hold until the sea declared a ceasefire on the war with Keta. Keta the land of his birth, the soil that is the custodian of his placenta, deserves a fair share of whatever the vicissitudes of life would bestow on him. Atiavi is his ancestral home, but like his mother’s place Anyako or Asafotsi, is off the major road and a hotel project there might not serve any commercial purpose.

The dangerous and notorious swollen-shoot disease, to which a cure is yet to be found, arrived at Obanda and began to attack cocoa trees. The disease wiped out his 50-acre-cocoa farm.

Demoralised by this misfortune, Agbodzihu bagged and baggaged and left for Abor. The swollen-shoot disease dashed the hopes of many migrant cocoa farmers in the Gold Coast and showed them the road back to their hometowns.

28

When Agbodzihu returned to Abor, he re-established his businesses and trades. He had brought back his Austin truck, which he continued to use for commercial purposes. He brought back his faithful Aflao born driver, Dzogbeta, from Obanda to continue the good job he was doing.

Dzogbeta’s parents had earlier left Obanda for Aflao because of the swollen-shoot disease. He was staying behind only to continue driving his master’s bone shaker.

Agbodzihu has had inherent fears for mosquitoes. These fears started when he got to know they were very dangerous and were responsible for the death of several white men in West Africa.

That was when their Nature’s Study teacher at Keta treated the economic importance of the mosquito when they were in standard five. According to their teacher mosquitoes prevented the White man from turning West Africa into a settler-colony like what happened in Southern Africa. Southern Africa did not have the type of mosquitoes that West Africa had that was why White man took their land.

The West African coast was called the white man’s grave because virtually all of them died of malaria before they could carry out their pacification mission of the primitive tribes of the Lower Volta. All West African colonies owe the mosquito a debt of gratitude. The mosquito did for them what an army of a million men and women could never have done for them. They saw through the intention of the white man and declared a war of liberation on them before the nationalists understood the white man’s reason for crossing the mass of boiling salt water.

According to their teacher, the few White men who were spared the agony of death through mosquito bites, decided to protect the land through legislation. They legislated that all lands in the Gold Coast, which were not under cultivation, should be declared wasteland and vested in their monarch. Lands that contained gold, diamonds, manganese and bauxite were to be declared wastelands and vested in their monarch. This piece of legislation raised eyebrows and compelled the Gold Coasters to send a delegation to the monarch. The delegates told the monarch that, land in the Gold Coast belonged to three categories of people; the living, the dead and the yet unborn. They contended that those of them alive did not form a quorum to take a decision on the matter since two-thirds of the owners were absent. Secondly the land needed no extra protection since it was being protected perpetually by the dead and the yet

29

unborn. Their monarch was flabbergasted by what she heard from people who were renowned for inability to think. It was contradicted all the reports from her researchers on primitive people. The piece of legislation was consequently declared null and void by the monarch. What the mosquitoes prevented them from doing they sought to through legislation. But legislation too could not do it for them.

Those same mosquitoes prevented Agbodzihu from carrying out his dream of building several hotels in the Gold Coast. He was attacked by malaria and passed away after a few days. Among his people, a person did not just die. Every death had a cause and every cause had a spiritual underpinning that must be discovered for the necessary remedial action to be taken to prevent a recurrence.

When the oracle of Afa was consulted on what caused his death, it was disclosed that Agbodzihu was a lieutenant of the Cult of Yeweh and a prince in the world of the ancestors, and heir to a throne. The reigning chief had reincarnated on earth and Agbodzihu was therefore urgently needed for enstoolment as king in the world of the ancestors. The oracle of Afa stated that mosquitoes should not be blamed for his death, because they could not have killed him if the gods had not called him. He left behind three wives and sixteen children – nine boys and seven girls.

Agbodzihu’s grandfather, Dumega Atidemekpe Menyamumumna Efiagawo (The axe is unable to fell a tree that leans against a rock) was a brave warrior and son of Xebidzi Medzona Kpleator (An angry bird does not fly with its nest). He was reputed to have captured the first white man to have set foot at Abor, kept him together with pigs and offered him raw cassava purportedly on the belief that he was a pig, because he had never seen a white man before. On the third day of his capture, his colleagues from the colonial office in Keta discovered and rescued him. Dumegah Atidemekpe Menyamumumna Efiagawo was arrested and charged with kidnapping of a colonial officer during the discharge of his legitimate duties without provocation. When the judge asked why he kept the white in a pen with pigs, he answered innocently that he thought the man was a pig. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment with hard labour. Everybody in Abor however knew that Amegah Atidemekpe

30

Menyamumumna Efiagawo did it deliberately in retaliation against stories he had heard about an African, Ota Bengal, from Central Africa who was captured against his will and exported to America, caged together with monkeys and fed on bananas.

31

CHAPTER FIVE Horsuglo’s tapping ground has become a forum for the discussion of issues affecting the welfare and development aspirations of the people of the 37 villages. A host of people - palm wine drinkers, palm wine tapers, hunters, farmers, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, carpenters, soothsayers, drivers, plumbers, electricians, herbalists, petty traders, market toll collectors, shoe-makers, shoe-shine boys and travellers - often accidentally converged there and exchanged views on a diversity of issues of local and national importance. Horsuglo’s had three industrious men who assisted him in executing the laborious business of palm wine tapping. Agbui was no stranger there. He came to the tapping ground often and the week before he officiated as the principal hunter at the Ade rites that Horsuglo performed.

The tapping ground served as a-free-for-all parliament where both local and national issues were vigorously discussed. Anybody was qualified to participate in the discussions. Everybody available voluntarily participated and freely aired various and conflicting views. There was hardly any consensus during the discussions. This was due to the fact that there were often too many views and ideas to make agreement possible. They took decisions which were expressed in strongly worded motions and emotions, a manifestation of pent up frustration and anger against the white man’s rule over them. But ironically few were actually ever carried out. They did not have the capacity to carry out their decisions. They expressed strong disapproval for the impression that the Blackman has an extremely small brain incapable of advanced thinking; and that he was half-child, half-devil ordained to be a hewer of wood and a drawer of water.

When Agbui arrived at the tapping place, his friend – Horsuglo was preparing to go for the afternoon round of tapping. On seeing Agbui, Horsuglo began to recite his rum name.

“Glaminado, Gadaglaminado, a bottle does not dance on a stone, the drum that was beaten for the fetish priest to dance to was beaten to the Christian and he exclaimed the tune was remarkable, you are welcome” Horsuglo saluted. Agbui returned Horsuglo’s rum name in reply. They greeted each other warmly after Agbui had drunk the water offered him. For that was what custom required. Agbui would have liked a calabash of palm wine instead. But custom was custom. The ever present gray-haired-old-man whose dictates no man worth his salt flouted. He who brings water brings life. It was therefore water first and greetings second.

32

Any other thing came later. That was how it was and how it ought to be. Nobody ever challenged the wisdom of the ages past. “You do not start humming a tune when you are going to keep wake later in the day”. Agbui thought to himself.

Horsuglo demanded from Agbui his raison d’etre for calling. Agbui replied he had called to see how his son was fairing since they performed the Ade rites. Horsuglo quickly instructed one of his boys to bring a small pot of fresh palm wine. The boy sprang up to his feet and dashed into a fence beside the hut. A few seconds later, the boy returned with a small pot of fresh palm wine in his hands. It foamed tirelessly and let sparks of bubbles into the air. They exploded and vanished. Agbui’s mouth began to water. “This is palm wine”. He affirmed before the boy could put the pot on the ground.

Two other men were there before Agbui arrived. Agbui knew these men very well. They were regular members and contributed quite significantly to debates they normally had. Without much ado, palm wine drinking started in earnest hand in hand with conversation. Horsuglo would not go for the afternoon round of tapping any longer. His boys would do it. Agbui was a special man, the Awadada of the 37 villages and only few people would deny themselves to opportunity and pleasure of listening to him. He made thought-provoking and controversial statements about the colonial administration.

On such occasions mention would be made of the second world war, the role played by black soldiers; the nationalist agitations, the cocoa prices, missionary activities; land disputes; cost of living; the spread of education, the humiliation of blacks in their lands in the form of forced labour, hut and herd taxes, pass laws, wage discrimination, prevention from cultivating certain types of crops, on the contention that blacks are primitive and barbarous would contaminate certain crops. Blacks were often compelled to work in mines, on plantations, as house boys for the white man, a more humiliating treatment was punishment on the spot, and disgusting atrocities like the dismembering of limbs were often mentioned and resolutely condemned.

Wherever such issues were discussed Horsuglo and his friend Agbui, would never agree. They almost always held contrary views, especially when it came to why the white man came to the Black Island.

33

Then Horsuglo would contend that the white man was on the Black Island to civilise the Islanders. The white man according to him was appalled by the deplorable living conditions of the Islanders. The white man, Horsuglo would argue, was overwhelmed with pity for the Islanders and was committed to extricating them from the bondage of savagery and primitivity and to introduce western civilization, modern education and Christianity. The White man in the perception of Horsuglo denied himself the luxury of civilised living in order to help the Islanders on their long and tortuous road to civilization and modernity. This is to cure the Islanders of disgusting and primitive practices like human sacrifice, panyarring, pawning, slavery and slave trade and to introduce more refined practices like Christianity, western education, European language, Europeans ways of dressing, ways of speaking and ways of thinking. This is the White man’s burden and the mission to pacify primitive tribes, Horsuglo would strongly contend.

He would cite examples like roads, railways, bridges, harbors,

schools, churches, hospitals, plantations and factories. He would also mention the introduction of money to replace the cumbersome trade by barter as one of the greatest benefits of the coming of colonial rule.

Horsuglo has had some education. He could read and write though not elaborately. He was one of the very first sons of Agbovega to obtain lessons in the White man's tongue.

Unfortunately, however, he had to end it all after reaching standard six. That was when his father, the sole breadwinner of his family died. When he returned from Keta to Agbovega he virtually wrote all the letters going out and read all the letters coming in. He decided to enter the profession of palm wine tapping after his father’s final funeral rites and was now earning a living as a professional palm wine taper. He was very famous for the quality of his palm wine and he was among the few professional palm wine tapers never known to have diluted their palm wine with water.

Agbui would disagree with his good friend Horsuglo. He would begin, that it to be agreed at least by the average scholar that there were certain things that one might be tempted to call modernisation on the Island as a whole today. These were the unintended consequences of the Europeans looting and plundering mission Africa. Agbui would contend that first and foremost the White man did not have the well being of the Black Islanders in mind.

34

The White man provided roads, bridges, schools, hospitals and harbours.

It is however

interesting that the roads and railways led to only mining centres, or places where strategic raw materials could be found in great quantities. In addition, these roads were constructed with taxes imposed on the Africans and with the labour of Africans. At certain places the White man did not hide his disdain for Africans and used forced labour. At other places he was more cunning and christened force labour, communal labour as though it were voluntary and agreed upon by the Africans themselves. The punishment for failure to attend any such communal labour was as ruthless as those meted out under the forced labour. Agbui would state.

Agbui would then go on to submit that the schools were simply meant to turn out half baked scholars who could barely read and write to help the White man with his burden of satisfying the avarice of his home people in raw materials and markets for their goods. Agbui would support his argument by asking why the White man did not provide any facilities for higher education until African nationalist began to press for them. Then he would conclude that the things people see today as modernisation in Africa during colonial rule, were structures provided to facilitate and accelerate the effective exploitation of resources in the colonies. As for the missionaries, Agbui would say they were reactionary and opportunistic, and state that their works was part of the grand design to subjugate Africans. To help the Islanders to innocently abandon their ancestral gods, scorn them as primitive and throw them away. Yet they; the Islanders who accepted the White man’s god, would be impressed upon to eat of the flesh of Jesus Christ to banish their spiritual hunger, and drink of his blood to assuage an imaginary divine thirst. That was, however, not savagery or primitivity. After all he sacrificed himself and to eat of his flesh was only a token recognition of his heroic sacrifice, missionaries would tell the Islanders. “Africans, who from time immemorial, had been masters of their own destinies and had embarked upon ventures like the weaving of kente-cloth, salt mining; gold mining, tax collection, the keeping of their won armies for defence, blacksmithing and gold smithing, iron smelting, fine arts, boat-building, surgery and ocean fishing that satisfied their own requirements within their economies, began to be increasingly incorporated into a world system

35

characterized by a notorious division of labour within which the Africans were made to produce things they did not consume and to consume things they did not produce. Is it not a pity for Africans to be the leading producers and exporters of raw material like cocoa, coffee, tea, sisal, palm oil, and groundnuts among others, yet they little consume these things? Is it not shameful, even ridiculous, for Africans whose food requirements were met through their own efforts, to now go about with cup in hand begging to credit grain, for the simple reason that they had not being paid by the White man for their cocoa or coffee? And they would produce the receipts, acknowledging that they had actually sold cocoa or coffee to the White man on credit.”

That was how Agbui would put his arguments.

“And after turning these raw materials into manufactured goods, the White man would bring them to Africa. Perishable items of little value, like guns, alcohol, tobacco and old clothes.

But he would exchange them for tangible and very valuable things like gold, ivory, beads, diamonds and event human beings. Yet the White man would religiously swear that the Africans have contributed nothing to the advancement of mankind. Any good thing ever made on the Black Island might have been the handwork of a strayed White man. The White man would say the Black Islanders have no history. For history began with writing. The Islanders have only anthropology”. Agbui would state.

Agbui, like Horsuglo has had some education. But unlike Horsuglo he managed to finish standard seven at the Keta Roman Catholic Senior School in the early forties. He was very open-minded and always wanted to inquire into the how and why of many developments around him. Today the conversation was centred on Agbodzihu Aborgah and his final funeral rites. Little was said about their more typical and topical issues of colonial rule in Africa and the nationalist activities.

After three calabashes of palm wine, Agbui said good-bye to

Horsuglo and left for Abor to attend Agbodzihu Aborgah’s funeral.

Horsuglo’s boys had returned from the afternoon round of tapping. They all knew Agbodzihu very well and would be present at the funeral. It was about three days away. All the people, especially the young men, loved wake-keeping a great deal. They would meet their girl friends

36

and make new ones. There was always the chance of meeting new friends at such wake keepings. Many girls attended such wake-keepings and smart young men were always more lucky.

37

CHAPTER SIX Agbui was now heading for Abor from Agbovega through Horsuglo’s farm. He had set some traps for glasscutters. It was these traps that he intended inspecting before proceeding to Abor.

How he wished the traps caught something, only the gods knew. The first trap he inspected caught a very big and long cobra. The snake was still alive and was desperately struggling to free itself from the iron trap. The harder it struggled to free itself, the more it got entangled into the powerful jaws of the iron trap.

Never before had a man been so frightened on seeing a snake. Adrenocorticotrophic hormones were released into his body and the effects were immediate. His pulse became rapid and his heart beat faster. He had reached the fight or flight stage and he fled. He became immediately nervous and goose pimples developed all over his body. His fright was not so much due to the catching of a snake per se. It reminded him of what his father had told him. Black cats and black snakes are bad omens. Agbui was very superstitious. He believed that the catching of a black cobra in an iron trap was a bad omen. It could be a possible forerunner to a misfortune.

He uttered a few curses at he snake and its ancestors and quickly went away to inspect the second trap. It was the serpent that deceived Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden long time ago. A serpent is a symbolic representation of Lucifer - Satan, the brightest of the angels who rebelled against God for not practising democracy in Heaven and was thrown out of Heaven. He has ever since taken residence on earth to torment and lead human beings astray so that they would not inherit the good things God has reserved and preserved for mankind in Heaven. Satan was not going to allow the privileges he lost whilst fighting for democracy in Heaven to be bestowed on man without a struggle.

Agbui often seriously thought about the Christian concept of the fall of man. “If God is omnipotent why did he not know in advance what Adam and Eve were going to do? Why did he not endow Adam and Eve only with the ability to do good? Was it fair on the part of God to immediately drive out Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and curse them so severely together with posterity as first offenders? Is it not God that one is told in the Holy Book, commanded men to forgive their fellow men their trespasses as often as they do trespass? Why then did he so severely punish innocent Adam and Eve, for the very first offence they are said 38

to have committed?

Could a really good and merciful father so cruelly punish his own

children? Is God interested in seeing his own creatures suffer?” Agbui contemplated. These and a lot more raced through his mind as he left the snake behind to inspect another trap. He walked briskly in an opposite direction. Just as he was expecting the trap had disappeared from the spot. His face began to beam with satisfaction. There were prospects of having something.

The trap was dragged away from the spot. He tracked along. After a few steps, there within the full grips of the iron trap was a huge grass-cutter. Agbui became very happy. He had seen big grass-cutters before, but none was ever as big as the one before him. It was still alive.

Agbui removed his cutlass from his armpit and with the blunt edge delivered a blow unto the head of the poor creature. The grass-cutter died at once because the blow was very powerful.

He raised it. It was as fat as a piglet. “It would cost ten shillings” he estimated. He quickly pocketed it and started off for Abor. Abor is located to the east of Agbovega. One took less than three hours to get there from Agbovega on foot and about an hour if one was privileged enough to do it on an iron-horse.

Agbui was greatly feared by children of all the 37 villages. His entry into any village provoked stampeding to safety among children. It became fashionable for women to scare their children by saying “Agbui is coming”. This was enough to silence even the most troublesome child. He was terribly feared by children in the whole land. Rumour has it that some years back when Agbui went to visit his friend Sogboshie at Kpave, something very sad happened.

Kwadzogah’s wife, whose child, Agbeko had engaged himself ceaselessly in crying all day, shouted “Agbui is coming” just as she saw Agbui approaching from the distance, in an attempt to stop the child from further wailing. Unfortunately the over frightened child in a bid to take refuge, sprang up and raced in the opposite direction, after ascertaining that the alarm raised by his mother was not a false one like its predecessors. Agbeko was not a coward, but Agbui was not the person against whom he would want to pitch his bravery. To him, just like to all other children, Agbui meant death. One ate no longer and drunk no longer if captured by Agbui. No child ever dared to stop. Not even to take a second look. Agbeko fled and knocked his feet against some firewood and fell into the fire that was burning in his mother’s hearth outside.

39

But for his mother’s vigilance he would have sustained much more serious burns. Agbui never chased any child about the 37 villages, but he was greatly feared by all children.

On arriving at Abor, Agbui marched straight to the house of his most regular customer. She was at home. Agbui removed the grass-cutter from his haver-sack and displayed it at the feet of the fat woman. She dealt in the buying and selling of bush meat. Nobody knew how much profit she made, but she always said the business was not good and that she was going to stop.

She had not yet stopped. She asked one of her daughters to get Agbui some water. Agbui’s bargaining was strategic. He wanted ten shillings for the fat grass-cutter. But if he said ten shillings the woman would demand further reduction in price. He therefore told her to pay one pound ten shillings. The woman laughed merrily and entreated Agbui to stop joking and do business. After a long and hard bargain, the woman accepted to pay ten shillings for the fat grass-cutter. Nobody has ever beaten him to strategic bargaining, not even this woman who thought she could cheat all the people all the time.

What Agbui did not know was that the woman was going to sell it for one pound ten shillings.

If he had known it would have reminded him of the three Agbovega boys who went to Keta to seek jobs with the DC. They perched on the veranda and were watching the black and white TV in the DC’s hall. When the garden boy from Blamezado came round, he accused them of not paying before watching the TV. He demanded ten shillings for the ten minutes that they were deemed to have watched the TV. The three Agbovega boys swore by the gods of their fathers that they had watched it for only three minutes. The garden boy took three shillings from them and they went away onto the streets of Keta, their faces beaming with satisfaction for having outwitted the garden boy, because they had watched the TV for more than ten minutes. The garden boy said to himself: ‘villagers, who told you that people pay to watch the DC’s TV’.

Agbui stayed briefly with the woman and her children conserving. The conversation so much absorbed their attention that they took no notice of what was going on around them. A boy who knew Agbui had just interrupted their conservation with greetings and disclosed that two policemen from Keta, the DC’s town had arrived at Abor on their way to Agbovega to arrest

40

Agbui. The people advised Agbui to take to his heels. To the amazement of the people, Agbui objected the idea of running away. They did not understand why the DC’s policemen wanted him. What could he have done to stir the

anger the DC in Keta?

Agbui knew a few

policemen. That was several years ago when he was a pupil at the Keta Roman Catholic Senior School in Keta. But he had no personal friend who was a policeman. He however had friends and relatives at Dzelukope, Kedzi, Vodza, Kedzikope, Abutiakope, Nukpesekope, Vui, Tettekope, Norlime, Adzido and Agorta. His aunt was married to a fisherman at Tegbi Akpedogbo and he was well known at the other Tegbi towns like, Ashiata, Kpota, Wagana, Agbedrafor and Ativigbor, as well as Woe. He committed no crime at Keta and its surrounding villages to warrant arrest.

Agbui petitioned his host to offer him a glass of akpeteshie so that he might pour libation to the gods of his ancestors. His upset host readily offered him the akpeteshie. Agbui removed his boots took two steps forward facing his home village, Agbovega and began to pour libation to the gods of his ancestors, the gods of the living and the yet unborn.

“Glaminado

Gadaglaminado a bottle does not dance on a stone, the drum that was beaten to the fetish priest to dance to a drum beaten to the Christian and he exclaimed the tune was excellent, listen to your appellation. The evil nose that built its camp on the surface of a man’s face hearken to your name. Akogolagba Vuduwotsoe Dokpui I beseech you. Zakadza who destroys a million in a minute I do not call you in vain; Dzagligodogo, the father owned a great deal yet the child lived in poverty give ears to my supplications” he paused and looked up. A crowd of people had begun gathering together. “You all, of the invisible world, I beseech you and do you homage. You know what mortals know not, and see when the living human beings see nothing. Into your might hands I do hereby entrust myself, deliver me from all unforeseen evils, that I might forever proclaim your power and might”. That was his prayer, libation and petition. Just a he poured the drink out unto the ground; the policemen arrived at the spot.

Day was then gradually but surely giving way tonight. And the sun was bequeathing its primeval role to the moon. It was full moon and the red-hot moon was beginning to emerge from behind the woods. The waxing moon was emerging far away on the horizon in the direction of Keta. Her beams were casting big and fanciful shadows, some of which resembled

41

human figures from a distance. But they slowly faded away into nothing on closer observation.

The moon acted for the sun at night to enable the sun to rest. The moon’s beams come nowhere near the rays of the sun in intensity. The sun cast shadows but much smaller and more distinct shadows. The sun is the sun and the moon is the moon. But both began in the east and ended it all in the west. The heavens were quite cloudless. The weather was calm and cool. A mild breeze blew gently across Abor. Children had begun calling their playmates to show up for their moonlight activities from across compounds. They would gather together on such moonlight nights and play deep into the night. On such nights, the old would remember their youth with much regret.

“Who among you is called Agbui?” One of the policemen demanded when both of them had reached the spot where Agbui had been pouring the libation. “Here am I, the one and only Agbui, in the whole land. “Agbui replied, standing up to meet the policeman who had questioned him. “Are you the one that they call Agbui that hails from Agbovega, the village beyond?”

The policeman again enquired.

‘Yes I am’, Agbui confirmed. With little

questioning they handcuffed him and took him away towards Keta.

The moon was till beaming. Agbui walked between the two policemen. He was still in dreamland, brooding over what must have necessitated his arrest. He was not issued with a warrant of arrest. He could not believe his eyes. It all looked like a dream to him. As they went along, the policemen did not converse with him. They asked him no questions. They were weak with much walking and had no inclination for talking. They walked on and on. The weather was becoming increasingly chilly. The moon was now quite high up in the sky. Her beams were now more powerful and cast less illusive shadows. Illusive shadows that looked like human beings from afar but faded into nothing on closer look. These illusive shadows cast vague feelings of fear on you, as you moved along the narrow path of life. They walked on and on towards Keta, the seat of the colonial administration.

42

C H A P T E R SEVEN Torgbui Fomeaka was the oldest man alive at Agbovega. He had seen more days than anyone else in any of the thirty-seven villages. Nobody in Weme, Asasieme, Atsiame, Heluvi, Glikpome, Hogakope, Anyako, Seva, Konu, Aborlove, or Nolopui, in the Anyako-WashaWego Area, was older than Torgbui Fomeaka. Not even in the Tsiame-Asadame-Atiavi Area of Netime, Dorveme, Norliwotagbor, Glime, Hatorgodo, Agorvinu, Atiame, Hortagba, Wenyagor, Devegodo, or Mamime. Even in the Akatsi-Tadzewu Areas of Dagbamate, Avenorfedo, Avenorfeme, Gbordome-Dzoefe, Agbedrafor, Lume, Asafotsi, Asiagborvi, Devego, Gefia, Wlite, Ayitikope, Lagbokope, Dzogadzi, Gornu-Kporkplorte, Wute, Ziope or Hornugo.

Perhaps, there were only three known people alive who might be equal in age with or older than Torgbui Fomeaka. There are two women, in the Dzita-Anyanui Area of Bomigo and Agbledomi; and one man in the Tregui-Shime Area of Bleamezado. Nevertheless, Torgbui Fomeaka did not see the infancy of Agbovega. Agbovega is an ancient village and famous as a busy market centre. Even as far back as the days when men bought and sold men to men from across the mass of the boiling salt water, that stretched beyond the reach of the human eyes. It is said that even before the White man dreamt of coming to the Black Island, Agbovega already existed. The good old days when the Black Islanders ruled themselves and there was plenty to eat and to drink because people produced what they ate and ate what they produced.

There was peace and wars were only mentioned in fables. Things were exchanged for things.

One produced what one ate and ate what one produced. Surpluses were also deliberately produced to ensure the celebration of the rites of passage. Rites of passage like birth, child naming, puberty, circumcision, marriage, death, funerals and re-incarnation ceremonies. Those were days when a man’s prestige and status in life, depended not on how eloquently he spoke the white man’s language, but on the size of his household, the number of wives he husbanded, the number of mouths he fed, the number of fishing boats he had, the size of the fields he cultivated or the number of animals (cattle, goats, sheep, etc) that he owned or reared and his contribution to peace and tranquility in his community.

43

The slave trade arrived and destroyed this peace and tranquility. Justifying it with the existence of domestic slavery, the white man engineered and prosecuted the Trans- Atlantic slave trade with the active involvement of the Black Islanders. There were slave raids on neighbouring villages for slaves. One of the most interesting means of getting people for sale into slavery was the ‘kings wives’ strategy. Beauty contests of young women between the ages of 18 and 25 were organised in those days by the kings and chiefs in several towns and villages. The winners of these numerous beauty contests were given engagement rings and designated the ‘king’s wife’. The ladies designated the king’s wives were allowed to stay with their parents for very long periods without being invited to the palaces of their ‘husbands’. It was sacrilegious for any of these ladies to sleep with any other man after their engagement to the king. After one or two years, the king sent his people round to monitor his ‘wives’. If any of them was found to have given birth, or had been impregnated or had had sex with any other persons, such persons were considered to have committed sacrilege by sleeping with the king’s wives and were consequently arrested, taken to the king’s court, hurriedly tried and sentenced to slavery.

There is also the story of how some 150 people from the Lower Volta were stolen and sold into slavery. The story goes that a very big ship had docked at Keta. The white merchants had invited several drumming groups from the 37 villages to come and entertain the whites that had come to the Gold Coast colony. The oracle of Afa was consulted and the people were warned not to honour the invitation. Majority of the people heeded the called not to honour the invitation. Some people, mostly people who disbelieved the prediction or warning of Afa or could not deny their throats the benefit of drinking some free schnapps, honoured the invitation. The drumming took place on board the ship between 3.30 and 7.30 pm. The drummers and dancers were served with sumptuous meals and foreign drinks. They did not know the ship was to set sails that day at 8.00pm. When the bell went for them to leave the ship, there were too drunk to be able to leave the ship. At 8.00 pm the ship set off with about 150 people on board. When they woke up it was impossible to jump into the sea and swim back to Keta. They were all taken to America and sold into slavery. That was long time ago. That was the price they paid for ignoring the warning of the Oracle to satisfy the desires of their throats.

44

Torgbui Fomeaka was the chief of Agbovega one of the thirty-seven villages. He was very much respected for his wisdom and sense of justice. He was a selfless gray-haired man, who had devoted much of his time and energy to the well being of his people.

Since the

missionaries came, they had tried without success to convert him to Christianity. He gave them land to establish their missions, the school and the clinic, but he did not yield to their mission.

He could not understand how he could leave his ancestral gods to worship the god that was domiciled beyond the mass of salt water.

Ironically his sons, Christopher Lumor and Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah had been converted to the White man’s religion. Lumor, Rev. Amegah and Agbui were among the very first children to have started schooling at Agbovega. Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah had completed senior school at Keta and training college at Cape Coast. He proceeded to a seminary where he was trained as a reverend minister of the Christian religion. He was the head of church in Keta and Agbovega and lived in the mission house. He was a full-time minister working to bring the good news to his people. The name his father gave him at birth was Afatsiawu Kofi Fomeaka. When he was baptised the Pastor did like the name Afatsiawu when it was explained to him. The name means the oracle of Afa had spoken the truth. When his mother was pregnant the oracle of Afa was consulted to know whether there would be a safe delivery. The Afa oracle predicted that the delivery would be safe and the child was going to be a Friday born boy. This explains why Amegah was named Afatsiawu Kofi Fomeaka. Kofi is the name given to a Friday male born among the people of the Lower Volta.

If Afatsiawu as a name was accepted and used by a Christian, it would be counter productive to the spread of the good news. Jesus is the Truth and the Light not the oracle of Afa. His name was therefore changed to Abraham Kofi Amegah, to reflect his new belief and not the history of his birth, for the former things shall pass away. When Amegah was to have his confirmation another Christian name was added to his names upon the advice of the Pastor. The second Christian name would make a distinction between him and people who were only baptised, but could not proceed to have confirmation. Confirmation was an affirmation of total acceptance of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Alpha and the Omega, the Truth and the Light, the Resurrection and the Word. The white Pastor was made to understand that Kofis were normally notorious

45

and mischievous people. This piece of information curiously compelled the Pastor to drop Kofi as a name. Amegah was given a new name, Abraham Johnson at his confirmation. The Pastor quoted St. Luke chapter 5 verses 37-38 to support the change. No one puts new wine into old bottles. New wine should be put into new bottles. New belief should go with a new name to make a difference between the chosen and the lost. The Lord himself decreed it a long time ago. Christopher Lumor was the eldest son of Torgbui Fomeaka. He left home at a tender age to Takoradi in the Gold Coast after dropping out of school. He was baptised and named Christopher before he started school. He could not continue in the new belief for confirmation, hence he had only one Christian name.

Gomligo and his friends usually went to Torgbui Fomeaka at his palace. They took much delight in what the old man told them. Afenyo Francis and Hayford Williamson Modeta Jnr (aka Williamson Jnr.) were friends to Gomligo. They loved to accompany him to the old man’s palace. They liked nothing better than listening to the ancient man who knew so much about the past, everything about the present and very nearly accurately predicted the future. On such visits, the ancient man would tell them many things. He would tell them stories about the trade in which human beings bought and sold human beings, to human beings, from across the mass of boiling salt water, that stretched beyond the reach of the human eyes. The old man would tell them of how this trade provoked wars that led to the destruction of whole villages, towns and civilisation of the Black Islanders, how countless able-bodied men and women were killed and how famine forced some Islanders to sell their children into slavery in order to survive.

On such visits, the old man would lament how the trade greatly depleted the population of the Black Island. He would also tell them of how the White man had argued that the trade did not very much depopulate the Black Island. This, according to the white man, was because maize and cassava were introduced and the Islanders had much to eat. Secondly, the White man argued that, the Black Islanders were naturally polygamists, who off set any decrease in numbers through prolific natural procreation increases.

The white man through a

commissioned ‘scientific research’ arrived at the number of men and women lost to the Black Island due to the slave trade. The number was put at less than two hundred and fifty thousand people for the trade lasted more than 300 years. Another group of commissioned white

46

researchers carried out a similar ‘scientific research’ on the impact of the slave trade and using the same methodology, arrived at two hundred forty-eight thousand people. With a standard deviation of below five per cent, both results were upheld as the most accurate on the study of the impact of the slave trade. The researchers were awarded doctorate degrees by famous white universities that were established with proceeds from the slave trade. They also had national medals bestowed on them and appointed colonial governors for discovering the truth. They were later posted to the Black Island to explain the truth of the true impact of the slave trade in order to put to rest the exaggerated impact of the slave trade.

The researchers acknowledged in footnotes to their publication that they could not include the number of people who died during slave raids on the Black Island, those who died out of famine, bush fires, in transit and those who died in revolt against the slave trade, on farms owned by whites in the New World. The researchers were congratulated on their academic honesty for the deep and a revealing research on the trade. The researchers immediately became authorities on the study of the slave trade and international migrant labour relations.

Their work became an authoritative reference for all students of the slave trade and international migrant labour relations. That was what the old man told them.

When Gomligo and his colleagues arrived at the old man’s palace, a delegation of men was with him. The men were from Alakple in the Kome Area. They had come to seek the old man’s advice on a land dispute among the people of Kodzi, Atito, Fiaxor, Deta Latame, Genui and Alakple. Since Torgbui was arguably the oldest person in the area the elders wanted him to assist in getting the matter resolved. Torgbui Fomeaka was concluding when Gomligo and his friends entered.

They heard him say; “Tell Torgbui Dzotefe Mafamafa Gake Avuwodzidzim Bena Yewoamloe (The heat at the fireside has not subsided but dogs want to lay there) and his brother Akogolagba Aheto, that I will come and help get the issues amicably resolved. Tell him that I say land issues, like chieftaincy issues, are delicate issues. He should therefore entreat the parties involved to exercise restraint. We have an obligation to remind them of the admonitions of Torgbui Sri I that the evildoer is a nation wrecker. For me, this is one more opportunity to

47

prove to the colonial administration in Keta that we are capable of credibly managing of own affairs. When we were confronted with tyranny and wickedness in Notsie under king Agorkoli, it did not take the intervention of a white man to resolve. We contrived our own strategies and schemes, which we implemented with dexterity to abort the conspiracy to annihilate us from existence.”

The delegates nodded their heads approvingly at the words of wisdom of the old man, as they took leave of him. The old man was sitting in the main hall in the palace, where the numerous visitors were accorded reception. He was seated in an armchair. His pipe was in his mouth.

Smoke oozed gently and freely from his ancient mouth. His face beamed with satisfaction as he did the thing he loved doing – smoking his pipe. Here was a lantern on a table before him. It was a big and old lantern. Nobody knew how old it was. All the old man said was that the lantern was older than Agbui. Nobody knew exactly how old Agbui was.

“Good evening; Torgbui” the boys simultaneously greeted.

“Is that Gomligo and his friends”.

The gray-haired man demanded.

‘Yes Torgbui.” Gomligo replied.

“Oh I see; good evening my grandchildren; how are you all.”

The old man demanded.

‘We are well Torgbui’. They responded.

The old man shook the lantern. There was enough kerosene in it. He raised the wick and it burned more brightly.

“Francis and Williamson Jnr. how are your parents?”

The old man asked on recognising the boys.

“They are fine Torgbui”. The two boys replied.

Torgbui Fomeaka demanded to know their reason for calling. The self appointed

spokesman

of the group - Gomligo, replied they had come to listen to the riddles he had promised them the previous week.

48

“Well that is very good”. The old man said after clearing his throat.

“Today I shall demand from you, answers to three interesting riddles. Stir your minds as seriously as you can and provide answers to them”. He paused.

“Even if your intellects prove impotent against these riddles do not let it disturb you. After all, you are all in your salad days and green in perspicacity. Now here comes the first one. There was once a strange man, he was blind, dump and hard of hearing – he had lost his faculties of sight, speech and hearing. It came to pass that he lost his mother, how would the people inform this man of his mother’s death” “Oh ho, what a riddle”. Williamson Jnr wondered. Francis said the riddle had no answer because it was impossible. Gomligo quickly said it had an answer and the answer was “impossible” “Small boys are young”. The old man commented.

“The riddle is difficult but the answer is quite easy. First of all, hold the man’s hand and let him feel the coffin. Since he was not born blind he would get the impression that someone was dead. Finally put a woman’s breast into his mouth and he would understand that the breast that the woman whose breast he once sucked was dead – that is his mother”.

The explanation was quite convincing to the children .

“A king” the old man began “wanted to know which of his three sons was the most intelligent, so that he might nominate him as the heir to his throne. Assuming you were one of them, what would you have done if the king gave you enough money to buy cattle that was neither a male nor a female”.

“I would go and buy beef from the butcher’s shop. Since the king cannot know from the meat whether it is a male or a female” Francis replied.

“No” the old man remarked. “No meat can represent an animal but only part of an animal.

Secondly, whether the king is able to detect from the meat or not is immaterial. The meat still remains that of either the male or the female. The butcher, who killed it, at least, knows” the old man explained. Gomligo and Williamson Jnr. had nothing beyond what Francis had said.

49

“Well, you simply collect the money from the king and leave the town for a few days. Come back later to the king and tell him that you had bought the cattle that were neither male nor female. Tell the king that the shepherd told you after payment that only hermaphrodites could lead this type of cattle and seriously cautioned you against the risk involved in refusing to heed the advice. Humbly petition the king to get you a hermaphrodite - a person who was neither a male nor a female to escort the sexless cattle from the shepherd to the palace. The old man explained. “Your father, the king, would not get such a person so the sexless cattle you have bought would remain there. You would have accomplished your assignment of purchasing sexless cattle”. Torgbui said.

“Now I will tell you the final riddle”. Torgbui said.

“There is a certain animal here on earth below this immortal sun. This animal walks on four legs in the morning; in the afternoon, it goes on only two legs; and in the evening it goes on three legs.

Which animal is that?

“It is the frog” Gomligo replied.

“No”, the old man remarked.

“It is the monkey,” Williamson Jnr answered.

“No” my grandson, it is not the monkey” “It is a tortoise” “It is not the tortoise my boy”. Torgbui remarked.

“Okay, you have tried. Now listen to the answer,” the old man said. “It is the human being.

When a child is born, it crawls on four legs – that is the morning of human life. Then it starts walking on two legs – that is the afternoon of human existence. When a person becomes too old to use two legs, he employs a walking-stick; that is the third leg, and the evening of human life”. Gomligo and his friends thanked the old man for his educative, interesting, entertaining and convincing riddles. They took leave of Torgbui and headed for their various houses.

50

The moon was high up in the sky. The usual shouting, singing and running about had practically ceased. Only the grown up boys and girls were in the streets, in isolated groups of one boy, one girl. That was how it was on moon light days. The night was calm and cool. The gentle breeze that was blowing was no longer desirable. The weather had become unpleasantly cold. Mosquitoes of the Lower Volta were running amok in the streets, on a mission of pacifying the town of the iniquities of a morally bankrupt generation.

51

CHAPTER EIGHT Just as Torgbui Fomeaka was getting ready to get to bed, Kodzovi and Akpalu were led in by Gomligo, who had met them after departing from the old man earlier the same night. Kodzovi was one of the sons of Torgbui Aborgah of Abor and brother the late Agbodzihu. They greeted the old man and delivered their message.

“We bear a message from Torgbui Aborgah to you. He wants to let you know that the DC’s policemen from Keta have arrested your son, Agbui.

And without questioning beyond

ascertaining that he was Agbui, they led him away, towards Keta. My voice has fallen”.

Kodzovi narrated.

“I thank you for the trouble you have taken. Tell Torgbui Aborgah that I am grateful for the information.” Torgbui Fomeaka replied. Kodzovi and Akpalu said goodnight to the old man and left for Abor.

Gomligo was asked by the old man to inform Afi De-Souza, Abraham Johnson Amegah and Christopher Lumor, to meet him early in the morning for a discussion of the message. The boy said goodnight and departed. Very early in the morning Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah and his wife Victoria, Afi De-Souza, Lumor and Gomligo met at Torgbui’s palace. The old man told them what he had heard. Lumor and Gomligo were chosen to go to Keta to check on the allegation of Agbui’s arrest. They set off for Keta in the early hours of the day.

Lumor was the eldest son of Torgbui Fomeaka. After dropping out of school in standard six he left for Takoradi where he stayed with his uncle, who got him job in the railway service. He had come home a few days before claiming he was on leave. Lumor had worked with a Whiteman for over fifteen years and could speak the White man’s language fairly well. *

*

*

*

*

*

News about Agbui’s arrest quickly spread throughout Agbovega People had started paying visits to the palace to ascertain the truth about the rumour.

It was being rumoured at

Agbovega that Agbui would be executed or jailed for life. Nobody knew what he had done. It

52

was a Sunday morning and people were on the way to church. Gloria and Olivia, both members of the same church discussed Agbui’s arrest as they walked towards the chapel.

“I understand Agbui has been arrested”. Gloria said, trying to see whether Olivia had heard anything about the matter.

“Yes, someone told my husband this morning”.

Olivia replied.

“According to the person Agbui would be sentenced to life imprisonment. He was reported to have been remotely linked with the burning down of the White man’s poultry farm at Keta last month”. Olivia explained.

“My husband told me Agbui was said to have been preaching the overthrow of the White man’s rule and he is reported to have been in touch with the nationalists agitating for the abolition of the White man’s rule over the Islanders”. Gloria said.

Before they got to the chapel Mrs. Victoria Amegah had caught up with them. They were anxious because Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah himself was the one going to preach that morning. He was a powerful and versatile preacher. No one wanted to miss his sermons.

Hardly were members of his congregation ever bored with his sermons. He knows how to capture the attention of his congregation during his sermons. He was tall and handsome, endowed with rhetoric, which he used to spread the Good News to the glory of God. “May our beginning be in the name of God the Father, the Son the Holy Ghost, Amen”.

Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah began. The congregation echoed “Amen” “The grace and the peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”

He said.

“And also be with you” The congregation replied.

“My brothers and sisters, to prepare ourselves to celebrate the Sabbath let us call to mind our sins.” The Rev. said The congregation recited the following in unison;

53

“ I confess to the Almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own fault in, my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do. I ask the Lord Almighty for forgiveness” The Creed of the Apostles was also recited in unison.

“I believe in the Father Almighty, he maker of heaven and earth. I believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and was born by the Virgin Mary. He was crucified, for the sake of man, under Pontius Pilate. He suffered, died and was buried. On the third day He rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures.

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand side of the Father Almighty. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ, the giver of life that comes from the Father and the Son who are worshiped and glorified. I believe in one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I believe in the resurrection of dead and the life to come. Amen” The first and second readings were taken.

The first reading was taken from the book of Prophet Isaiah chapter 11 verves 1-11 The second was taken from the gospel according St. Luke chapter 2 verses 1-20.

The congregation sang; Stand up! Stand for Jesus Yee soldiers of the cross, Lift up his royal banner, It must not suffer loss.

From victory unto victory His army he shall lead, Till every foe vanquished And Christ is Lord indeed.

Stand up! Stand for Jesus The trumpet calls obey;

54

Go forth into the conflict In this his glorious day.

You that are men, now serve him Against unnumbered foes; Let courage rise with danger, And strength to strength oppose.”

The theme of the sermon was “Deliverance from Fear”. “Do you call it nothing to look forward to death without fear and to judgment without doubting, and to eternity without a sinking heart? Do you call it nothing to feel the world slipping from you grasp and see the grave getting ready for you and the valley of the shadow of death opening up before your eyes, and yet not be afraid? Do you call it nothing to be able to think of the great day of account, the throne, the books, the judge, the great assembly humanity, the revelation of secrets of the final sentence and yet to feel you are safe.” “ Will your anchor hold in the storms of life?

When the clouds unfold their wings of strife; When the strong tides lift and the cables strain, Will your anchor drift or firm remain?

Chorus We have an anchor that keeps the soul Steadfast and sure while the billows roll; Fastened to the rock which cannot move, Grounded firm and deep in the saviour’s love.”

The congregation solemnly sang the song he quoted in the sermon. Then He continued; “This is the portion and the privilege of a forgiven soul. Such a person is a rock. When the rains of God’s wrath descend and the floods come and the winds blow his feet will not slide, his habitation will be sure. Such a person is in an ark. When the last fiery deluge is sweeping over all things on the surface of the earth it shall not come nigh him. He shall be caught up and borne securely above it all. Such a person is in a hiding place. When God arises to judge

55

terribly the earth and men would be calling to rocks and mountains to fall upon them and cover them. The Everlasting Arms shall throw around him and the storm shall pass over his head. He shall ‘abide under the shadow of the Almighty’. Such a person is in a city of refuge. The accuser of the brethren can lay no charge against him. There is a wall between him and the avenger of blood. The enemies of his Soul cannot hurt him. Such a person is rich. He has treasure in heaven, which cannot be affected by worldly changes at all. He needs not envy the richest merchant and banker. He has a portion that will endure when bank notes and sovereigns become worthless things.”

He quoted the second verse; and the congregation sang it as well.

“Will your anchor hold in the straits of fear?

When the breakers roar and the reef is near; While the surges rave and the wild winds blow, Shall the angry waves then your boat overflow?

Chorus We have an anchor that keeps the soul Steadfast and sure while the billows roll; Fastened to the rock which cannot move, Grounded firm and deep in the Saviour's love.”

“Finally such a person is insured. He is ready for anything that may happen. Banks may break, governments may be overturned but nothing can harm him. Famine and pestilence may rage around him. Sickness and sorrow may visit fireside. But still he is ready for all, - ready for health, ready for disease, ready for tears, for poverty, for life and ready for death. He has Christ. He is a pardoned soul ‘Blessed’ indeed’ is he whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sin is covered”.

“How will anyone escape if he neglects so great salvation? Why should you not lay hold on it at once and say, Pardon me, even me also O my Saviour! What would you have if the way I have set before you does not satisfy you? Come while the door is still open. Ask and you shall receive. Amen”. Rev. Abraham Johnson ended.

56

The whole congregation also echoed, “Amen”.

Another hymn was sung and the whole congregation said the Lord’s Prayer. The grace was then shared together; “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of our Lord Jesus Christ, be with you all now and for ever more, Amen.”

A closing hymn was sung and the service ended.

After the church service the congregation dispersed, each to his own home. Those from other villages had begun to return to their villages. As they went along some talked about the sermon, others talked about the arrest of Agbui. Mrs. Victoria Amegah had just returned from church. She went to sit in the mission orchard. She normally went to sit there when the weather was hot. It is the season after the last rains. No rains fell now. The greenery of grass had begun to fade into brownness and yellowish-brown. The sun was not particularly hot. But the weather was dry; as Christmas was approaching. The woman was singing some hymns.

A gentle wind blew across the orchard. It compelled trees to swing from one side to another as though in enjoyment and admiration of the melodious songs she was singing. She gazed at the virtually naked trees about. An anatomy of life and a paragon of art, the Christmas weather had proved to be. Yes a paragon of art that kills all forms of life and feeling. She changed from one song to another. Her songs seemed well chosen. They sounded mournful. Agbui’s arrest had disturbed her peace of mind. And she would know no peace until Agbui came back home.

Victoria was affectionately called Vikee. She looked in retrospect, far into her salad days when she was green in judgment. Vikee, daughter of a rich Keta fishmonger started school at the age of ten years and many were the people who thought her parents were mad for sending a girl to school. Within five years she grew to become a tall and elegant lady. She possessed of a uniquely oval face, a moderately pointed nose and a jet-black-curled hair, that gave her a queenly appearance. Vikee was nature’s own masterpiece in creative design.

Her neck was

covered with a sequence of natural rings that was observable from a respectable distance. Her limbs were excellently proportional to her body. She looked soft and delicate. Her dilating eyes were admired by all and sundry who had a sense appreciation for beauty.

Her pair of

conical and solid standing breasts aroused a provocation no man of woman-born could resist.

57

Her teeth radiated light whenever she laughed. She had known no scar all her life. Her skin was as smooth as glass. Nobody ever bypassed her in the streets of Keta without giving her an involuntary second look. Any doubt, therefore that she held the eyes of all the people of Keta in captivity? The story is still told in Keta about a young man who fell off his bicycle in the process of giving Vikee an involuntary second in the streets of Keta and got injured. She assisted the young to get up and led him to the clinic to get his bruises treated. Little did Vikee know that young man was going be her future husband. They never met again after that incident until they discovered each in college several years later.

Vikee and Abraham Johnson were college mates at Cape Coast. He was in the final year when Vikee entered the first year. Abraham Johnson had a special liking for Vikee when he discovered that she was the lady who assisted him when he fell off his bicycle in Keta. He always introduced Vikee to staff and students of the college as his cousin. Many people believed the claim because of the striking resemblance between them. When Abraham Johnson completed his training at the seminary, the Episcopal Council of his church insisted, in accordance with their doctrines, that he should marry before his ordination. Abraham Johnson proposed to the respected Vikee who had begun teaching at Agbovega. She accepted the proposal and the necessary customary rites were performed.

Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah wedded Vikee in one of the first known aristocratic Christian marriages ever in Keta. Rev. Amegah was then teaching at Keta Senior School and also acted as deputy personal secretary and advisor to the DC in Keta. He was the first black to have occupied that position. Vikee was as beautiful as she was twenty years ago at her wedding. Her beauty had hardly faded with the years. Her daughter Grace took after her in every respect.

Grace was a living replica of her mother’s prime.

Grace had married the previous year to one Mr. Frimpong from Bekwai and they were now leaving in the capital. Rev. and Mrs. Amegah have five children; two beautiful girls and three promising boys. Grace the eldest and Ebenezer the youngest. The rest were Abraham Johnson Jnr., Wilberforce and Juliana in that order. Abraham Johnson Amegah Jnr. was in college at

58

Cape Coast whilst Wilberforce and Juliana were attending senior school at Keta. Ebenezer was the only child with her at Agbovega. She would meet them during Xmas at Keta.

59

CHAPTER

NINE

There was an influential businesswoman from Denu, who traded in variety of things, both local and foreign across border. Her name was Margaret Dzatugbui but she was more popularly called Maggie. She was a Christian and attended church services almost always. But she was reported to have confessed that she seldom prayed or fasted since she became converted some ten years ago. Her business connections and commitments demanded shrewdness and often involved the use of unorthodox practices, blackmail and conspiratorial inducement.

It was this influential businesswoman who had lodged a complaint with the police at Keta against Agbui. She first went straight to the DC himself, who in turn directed her to the police inspector upon whose orders Agbui was arrested. The DC later soberly reflected on the woman’s call. He could not imagine what could have so much grieved Maggie to necessitate his attention. Nevertheless, he became interested in the matter, because he knew Maggie well.

She was tall and elegant and had finished standard seven. She spoke English quite well.

Maggie had told the police inspector and his colleagues that Agbui had extorted the sum of £120 from her. She explained to the inspector that Agbui owed her a total of £420, out of which he settled £300. He stated that all attempts, including summoning him at the courts of the traditional authorities, had not yielded any result. She alleged that Agbui had told her he was not going to pay the money.

The DC was to attend a meeting of all DCs in the capital. He would be away for one week.

Before his departure, he instructed the Police Inspector to investigate the case against Agbui.

Nobody knew of the DCs affairs with Maggie. Not even the Police Inspector or the District Magistrate who were all white officials in the colonial administration in Keta.

When Agbui and the policemen arrived at Keta the day before, he was immediately put behind the bars, without food and without water. He felt very hungry. He was put before court at 10 a.m. that day. At about 9 a.m., he was given some koko without bread. After the breakfast of koko without bread, he was led to the court. Agbui had his education at Keta, but had never

60

entered the courtroom before, though he had walked several times passed it. The hall was very big, much more bigger and more splendid than that at his father’s palace.

Agbui, who had often prided himself with being a legal adviser in traditional law, was now, face to face with a more complex court and a more sophisticated set of lawyers. As he sat on a bench in the courtroom, he gazed wondrously at the Magistrate. The Magistrate sat at a colossal desk on the platform in front, looking thoughtfully into a fat book, flanked on each side by two self-opinionated young colonial attorneys, who called one another “my learned friend”. And they responded “my learned friend”. As they questioned you in court, they would say, “I put it to you….”.

The court soon rose and hearing began. The prosecution charged Agbui with willfully and fraudulently refusing to accept and settle a debt he legitimately owed. Agbui was then asked to open his defence. Agbui hired no lawyer. He defended himself.

Agbui was put in the dock to commence his defence. “Maggie, I do know very well and for several years too”. Agbui began solemnly “A few years ago, she visited Agbovega and had for sometime been keeping drugs with me. These were drugs her brother Edodzi, who worked at the Keta Roman Catholic Clinic, gave her to sell. Somewhere last year, she brought the last consignment. It amounted to £300. I sincerely told her that I had made a profit of £240 on the stock. To my surprise, she demanded 50% of the profit I made.

I refused to honour her

demand because I considered it a dishonest demand. After this incident, she came again with a fresh consignment for me, but I rejected it. Maggie summoned me at the court of the elders at Agbovega on two counts and on both occasions the rulings were against her. The elders saw no basis for her claim and she had since never called at Agbovega”.

Agbui ended, rubbing some beads of sweat that had developed on his forehead.

The Roman Catholic Clinic, where Edodzi worked was near the court premises. A warrant covering his arrest was issued and he was arrested. A search of his residence was conducted and the things discovered lent credence to Agbui’s evidence. Alarming quantities of drugs were discovered in Edodzi’s house. The clinic authorities had often complained of missing

61

drugs. But never had any one suspected Edodzi. He was reputed for his honesty and devotion to work. The authorities therefore trusted him very much. On the day the final judgment was given, a witness from Agbovega came to speak. It was the linguist from Agbovega. His evidence confirmed what Agbui had said earlier.

Edodzi was given three years imprisonment with hard labour, and was to refund £750.10 to the Clinic being the amount of drugs stolen from the Clinic. In default he was to forfeit to the Roman Catholic Clinics. His newly acquired building at Denu was to serve as collateral security for the refund. Edodzi, who had been working as ward assistant for barely three years, had bought a big house at Denu. Nobody knew how this twenty-seven year-old standard seven boy got money enough to purchase such an expensive house. Maggie was found guilty on charges of conspiracy to steal and stealing and aiding a thief to sabotage the economy of the colony and was given two years. Agbui was acquitted and discharged. Lumor and Gomligo arrived when Agbui was giving evidence.

They congratulated him on his acquittal and

discharge and they left for Agbovega.

After spending a week, attending the conference of DCs in the capital, the DC of the Colonial Administration in Keta, Mr. Stratford-Williams returned to Keta. One thing intriguingly troubled him when he was in the capital. He felt the strategy of was not disclosing his relationship with Maggie to the Magistrate was a mistake. He was therefore anxious to know the out come of the case. The DC was horrified on learning of the rulings of the court. “Was it too late to do something about the sentence”? He asked himself. A fellow White man, the District Magistrate, passed the sentences. The magistrate was responsible to the Governor through him. Was he to explain his affairs with the woman to the Magistrate? No, that would amount to letting the cat out of the bag. “It is no pleasant experience to allow our people to know of our affairs with the daughters of the Black Island. It may not receive approval or an open condemnation.” He contemplated. He must do something before the matter got out of hand, and immediately too. He regretted the turn things had taken. If he had been around, the drama would have taken a different turn. He decided to go and see the Magistrate. The DC rode a car just as the Magistrate. Both were white men. White men did little walking on the shores of the Black Island. They rode in Cars.

62

When the engine of the DC’s new Morris car zoomed to a stop, the Magistrate opened his glass window and pulled apart his exceptional curtains that weighed heavily on the luxuriously carpeted floor. He knew it was the DC for Keta.

Where the White man stayed differed

drastically from where the Black Islanders stayed. The White man’s house was built in stone.

It was huge splendid, well planned and neat with flowerbeds and pots here and there. The walkways were carefully gravelled or paved. There were neatly mown lawns and swimming pools.

Black Islanders were paid to maintain the house, mow the lawns and water the

flowerbeds. They also trimmed the hedges and crooked his food. The white man’s wife never swept. She swept only in her hometown, far, far beyond the mass of boiling salt water, which stretched beyond the reach of human eyes.

She feared the rebuke of her mother and did some

sweeping in her hometown. Here on the Black Island there was no mother to rebuke her.

Further, there were the ever-willing hands of the Black Islanders, who willingly offered their labour.

“Mr. Stratford-Williams, when did you return from the capital? I hope you have not had it bad.” The magistrate greeted as the DC emerged from the Morris.

“You lawyers could be sarcastic. What on earth is there in the capital to enjoy at a time when the nationalist agitations are mounting so increasingly?

You know that roguish

demagogue of a nationalist leader, Dr. (Dr.) Kwasi Badu, has intensified his campaign against our administration. There is no peace in the capital. Let us address ourselves to more pleasant issues.”

The DC replied, as he entered the magnificent reception room of the Magistrate and settled himself absent-mindedly in a huge sofa.

“Give me firsthand information, Mr. Stratford-Williams, about the trend of events in the capital and the measures the government intends taking.”

The Magistrate demanded from the DC. “Mr. Brown, the nationalist activities have assumed volatile dimensions. That boy, trained buy Western Capital, appears to be seeking an end to everything. Dr. (Dr.) Kwasi Badu is the most dangerous human being God ever created. The Governor fears him, you know! Yes the Governor fears him a great deal. He has two doctorate degrees in two different disciplines, one in America and the other in Britain. He was the General Secretary to the Association of

63

Africans in the Diaspora. He is more educated than the Governor who has never matriculation examination. He is the Governor’s intellectual superior. He knows many things the Governor does not know. The whole of the Black Island is behind him. His methods are different from those of our friends. Dr. (Dr.) Kwasi Badu would not even accept an invitation to dine with the Governor. He claims the purpose of founding colonies was mainly to secure raw materials and protect the White man’s trading interests in Africa. According to Dr. (Dr.) Kwasi Badu the Gold Coast was made a non-manufacturing dependencies; prevented from acquiring the knowledge of modern means and techniques for developing its own industries; made simple producers of raw materials through cheap labour and prohibited from trading with other nations except the country of the White colonial master.” The DC stated with a feeling of disappointment.

“If this roguish demagogue is not stopped he would wreck our pacification mission of the primitive tribes of the Lower Volta. He is a human manifestation of the mosquitoes of the lower Volta, which are deadly obstacles to our mission of bringing civilisation the Black Island. We have built roads, put up schools, improved agriculture and introduced money to replace trade by barter. But the rogue tells everybody that we are cheats.” The DC said in defence of colonial administration in the Gold Coast.

“What are they demanding? Are they demanding new legislative council elections with an increase in unofficial members or constitutional reforms?” Mr. Brown asked. “Reforms?

Reforms indeed! Look this young man, Dr. (Dr.) Kwasi Badu, as I have observed earlier knows much more than the Governor. The Governor cannot face him with tactical manoeuvres like reforms. He has told members of his political party that; the provision of infrastructure under colonial rule was meant to accelerate the rate of exploitation. He said the limited schools were to produce the needed personnel for exploitation of resources, the hospitals were to provide the health needs of the Whites and their labour force, roads and railways were to promote the transportation of raw materials to the ports for export and the forts and castles for storage of goods and security. Colonialism he claims has destroyed the values and norms, art and craft and local industries of Blacks, and that what remained were the unintended consequences of a mission of exploitation. He said what they want was ‘Independence Now’. You heard people

64

shouting this slogan, all about the capital, particularly when they saw a White man riding pass”. The DC elaborated.

“What next does the government plan doing?” The Magistrate asked.

“Draw up an entirely Islander Constitution and have elections immediately. To see whether Dr. (Dr.) Kwesi Badu is just a commonplace rabble-rouser or truly a man of the people”. The DC replied.

“I have information that you adjudicated an interesting case that led to disquieting revelations”.

The DC said in an attempt to introduce the subject matter of great concern to him.

“Well the average Islander has an extremely small brain incapable of advanced thinking. They are half-children and half-devils, predestined by nature to be hewers of wood and drawers of water. Their dishonesty is beyond imagination, the converted as well as the heathen. They have formed a syndicate of thieves that is actively pilfering drugs that could be used to cure them and their bastards of diseases inflicted on them providence. They are paradoxically increasing the rate of morbidity and mortality among their kinsmen.” The Magistrate stated in a typical holier than thou fashion.

“What was the ruling you and what sentences went with it”. Asked, the DC. “I gave Edodzi three years of wood hewing and a refund of £750, 10 shillings to the Clinic, in default a forfeiture of his house at Denu. I also gave his sister, Maggie, two years of water drawing. She is a graceful lady.” The Magistrate noted.

“Mr. Brown, I made a very sad mistake of not telling you that the woman is my concubine. It all started last year when my wife was on leave in England. I met her at the Governors Annual Banquet Dance in the company of Rev. and Mrs. Abraham Johnson Amegah in the capital.

They introduced her to me and she became acquainted with me. One thing led to the other until the unforeseen started materialising”. The DC confessed with considerable difficulty.

“Oh I see, I think it was a comedy of error that led to a tragicomedy.” The Magistrate observed with a feeling of perplexity and discomfiture.

65

“Any remedy?” The DC petitioned.

“Oh I see, oh I see Mr. Stratford-Williams, why did you not tell me all this time? At any rate it is not completely too late yet. I think she must petition you for a mitigation of justice with clemency. You may on behalf of the Governor exercise a prerogative of mercy since she is a first time offender.

Her brother, Edodzi, let’s similarly mitigate his sentence to six months

imprisonment and impose a fine of £150 on him, in default another three months of incarceration”. The Magistrate proposed. “ Nothing can be more noteworthy. I will instruct the District Colonial Secretary to do the required paper work within the framework of the Law for my consideration. It will be forwarded to you for execution. The rule of law must be protected and defended at all times and at all cost. The option of an appeal, judicial review and the exercise of the prerogative of mercy are essential ingredients of the rule of law, due process and equality before the law. This is a brilliant idea in the march towards bringing civilisation to this valley of the shadow of death. Thank you Mr. Brown”.

The DC stated with a feeling of great relief.

66

C H A P T E R TEN It has been over a month now, since Dzatugbui lost the case against Agbui in Keta. She hated to be called Dzatugbui. She preferred being called by her Christo-European name Margaret, Maggie for short. Despite this attitude of hers, her own parents still called her Dzatugbui and she responded. Dzatugbui, like most youths of her age, was facing an acute identity crisis. She was fighting an emotional or psychological war against herself, her family, her country and her colour. She was a victim of a very powerful self-imposed emotional conflict. She hated the fact that she was a Black. She found it difficult to accept her background as an Islander. The Islanders were poor, primitive, afflicted with diseases, ignorance and superstition. She had resorted to the bleaching of her skin to enable her come closer to her own definition of a recognised and acceptable human being.

She had often wondered why God did not create her a white lady. If she had been born in London, New York, Paris, Berlin or even Johannesburg, it would have been much better and the story of her existence would have been entirely different. She was very uncomfortable with being born at Denu, in fact at Adafienu. She told people she was from Lome, where she owned a big house built for her by a Brazilian businessman. The relationship ended when she quarreled with his Lebanese wife, who referred to Dzatugbui as a morally bankrupt bitch, roaming about beaches, corrupting other people’s husbands.

Dzatugbui had been a sales girl to Nazario Roberto De-Souza in Lome for about five years. In the fifth year of her stay in Lome, something very traumatising happened to her on the day she was supposed to get wedded to one Afro-American. Unknown to Dzatugbui the man was married with two children in Accra. The wedding was scheduled for Lome to prevent the double marriage from being detected. Unfortunately, the man’s wife had wind of the conspiracy and decided to challenge the marriage. She was in Lome the day before and managed to get to the chapel without being noticed by her husband. When the Pastor asked that anyone with a reason for which the marriage should not take place should come out and state it, the woman walk forward with her two children to the surprise of the members of the congregation.

67

“Five years ago, I got married to this man under the ordinance law, which makes it criminal for him to marry as long as both of us are alive. Here are pictures of our wedding, our marriage certificate and our two children.” The woman reported with much disapproval. The allegations were investigated and found to be true. The wedding was discontinued, much to the shame and embarrassment of the couple, invited guests and the congregation. This singular episode so much traumatised Dzatugbui that she decided not to trust any man and had vowed to take revenge on all men.

Dzatugbui’s attitude of self-rejection created a vacuum in her, which she struggled to fill with material things, association with the rich and powerful, shunning the company of the poor and by seeking after treasure, leisure and pleasure. She was an influential businesswoman who took advantage of her beauty to make money. At thirty-five years of age she was already famous for her wealth, but she was without a child or a husband. She was nevertheless respected for wealth and admired by some people for her independence of thought and action.

The story is still told in Agbovega of what happened between Dzatugbui and a fishmonger from Denu. Dzatugbui once came home to Adafienu for a funeral in a porch car from Lome.

The fishmonger who had five children, was unlucky to have had one of her children using fried fish to write 1 2 3…on the bonnet of Dzatugbui’s presentational car. This angered Dzatugbui beyond what her countenance could accommodate. She considered the conduct of the child as an act of an unpardonable provocation and thought there was a compelling reason to put the untutored child and her unlettered parents where they belonged on the ladder of social stratification. Dzatugbui referred to the little girl and her parents us dirty, good for nothing and primitive Homo sapient.

The fishmonger, who knew Dzatugbui from infancy, to told her that with all wealth, she could not buy the perfume that she used. The fishmonger warned her to learn to respect women of integrity who did not thrive on the bread of idleness. The bluff of the fishmonger infuriated Dzatugbui who summoned her at the chief’s palace to produce the type of perfume which she thought could not be purchased by her. The woman appeared in court that day with her last born. When the matter was put to her, she simply restated her claim that with all her wealth,

68

Dzatugbui could not buy the perfume that she used. There-upon she was asked to produce the perfume she used. She brought her child forward; gently squeezed the nose and phlegm came out of the nose and she showed it the gathering as the perfume that she used. She then smeared it all over her body. Dzatugbui broke down in tears and went home without any further claims.

It was clear to everybody that with all her wealth she could not buy a child, let alone benefit from the use of the phlegm from a child’s nose. Her ego was deflated by the fishmonger. She could not bear the public humiliation and broke down in tears. Her mind went back to the three abortions she has had and the warning the doctor gave her against the third one. She refused to heed the doctor’s advice and went ahead to have her third consecutive abortion in three years.

This was because she could not afford to have a child without a societal wedding. Now here was a fishmonger, belonging to the category of people she despised most, referring to her inability to bear a child to the point of saying the phlegm of her children was her perfume.

Dzatugbui could not bear it. And she wept. *

*

*

*

*

News about Agbui’s victory, in the very court of the White man quickly spread throughout the thirty-seven villages and immensely raised his image and re-enforced his claim –as a lawyer in traditional law. He recounted his experience to many people. He mentioned the fat books, the huge desks, the self-opinionated young men - the lawyers who greeted one another and recalled their learnedness by saying, “My learned friend” and the other would respond “My learned friend”. Agbui also vividly recounted how these learned gentlemen, would repeatedly say, as often as they addressed you in court, “I put it to you that…I suggest to you that…My Lord objection… etc”. He did not however, tell anybody about how intimidated he felt before this crop of sophisticated and learned gentlemen. Nevertheless, his victory had become newsworthy in the whole land and a much-talked-about episode even in the most influential circles. It was the talk of the town in chapels, on the way to farm, from the stream, at the market places and at funerals and other social gatherings of the people. *

*

*

*

*

*

Williamson Jnr. Modeta was the classmate and cherished friend of Gomligo had for over a week now been absent from school. The absence of Williamson Jnr., son of Mr. Hayford

69

Williamson Modeta, a teacher at the Roman Catholic Primary School at Agbovegah, from his class for so long a time had produced emptiness no other pupil could fill entirely. Williamson Jnr. was the spirit of his class and gave colour and momentum to every class activity. He had a superb whimsical sense of humour and hilariously entertained his class. He was highly imaginative and resourceful. But when death chose to demoralise his family and agonise his parents, Williamson Jnr., passed away, before he could say goodbye to his parents, let alone to his classmates.

Mr. Hayford Williamson Modeta was reported to have claimed hailing from Ho, even though it was whispered that he was not from Ho itself, but from Matse one of the villages near. His parents had stayed at Ho for a very long time and had forgotten all about their home village.

Mr. Modeta and all his brothers and sisters were born and bred at Ho. Williamson Jnr. had been on admission at the Keta Health Centre for two weeks. He was diagnosed as having leukemia – cancer of the cold – for which there was no known cure. His condition progressively kept deteriorating day in day out. He had distressingly high temperatures during the day and very low night temperatures.

He had become pitifully lean and hardly able to eat anything.

Williamson Jnr. had become all skin and bone – virtually a living skeleton. Finally, the doctor lamented his condition and regretted to announce the hopelessness of ever restoring him to normal health. Williamson Jnr died that very night at Keta.

Three days to the death Williamson Jnr, Sogboshie, the renowned and powerful fetish priest of Kpave dashed to Agbovegah and offered to try his hands at the illness.

Much to Sogboshie

dismay, his kind gesture was politely turned down. “This is a Christian home, Torgbui Sogboshie, and we are not permitted to go the way you have offered. Thank you” Mr. Modeta replied quite surely but absent-mindedly. This did not however, prevent Sogboshie from telling Mr. Modeta what his deities had revealed. Witches were causing Williamson Jnr.’s illness. He cautioned that certain rites were needed to restore Williamson Jnr.’s health.

Sogboshie simply exercised a sigh of sympathy and regret and left for Kpave. As he moved towards his village, Sogboshie thought and thought. Little could he bring himself to understand why a section of the Black Islanders, should see the traditional medicine man as detestable and his medicine as uncalled for. More so after the doctors had thrown in their towels. He

70

wondered. Sogboshie could not understand and he wondered. Sogboshie little blamed the individual Islander. It was the White man from beyond the salt water. He brought his ancestral god, and he turned the heads of the Islanders upside down. An increasing number of Islanders were no longer worshiping or paying homage to their ancestral gods. They now paid homage to and prayed to the White man’s god.

“In the day before the White man came, whoever viewed traditional medicine as abominable?

Whoever regarded the fetish priest with scorn? Whoever disregarded the warnings of the gods?

Whoever saw soothsaying as reaping where one had not sown? However treated a fetish priest so lightly and got away with it? But today, the White man has brought his god and our gods are weeping for want of attention and for want of sacrifices. As a result, they have refused to send down rain, fertility, to prevent war, poverty, and diseases.” Sogboshie contemplated.

Sogboshie thought and thought, and he attributed the present predicament of society to the White man’s coming. For today, the White man, would dictate dos and don't, even before he had had time to study our customs, our values and norms, our beliefs and culture. He wished the White man had never stepped on the soils of the Black Island, for his footsteps have desecrated the Island beyond remedy.

On the day Williamson Jnr’s body was brought from Keta to Agbovega many sympathizers came from all over the thirty-seven villages, because Mr. Modeta was good and merciful man, who devoted his time and energy to the well being of Agbovega, and all the villages around.

Wake was kept that day. Christians and pagans attended the funeral. There was drumming and dancing throughout the night. At dawn a team of carpenters were seen tirelessly building Williamson Jnr’s narrow bed under small shed. The carpenters and the people who had gathered there sang songs, those who had lost their voices during the night kept the beat by clapping their hands or beating sticks together. The wailing that had subsided was renewed with much intensity, with the arrival of some members of the Modeta family from Ho. Throughout the night, Williamson Jnr.’s mortal remains were colourfully laid in state. His colleagues and school mates came to pay his body their last respects. Songs were sung amid

71

wailing and gnashing of teeth. “And God shall wipe away all tears from every eyes” and “Nearer my God to thee” and many more mourning songs were sang. At 11:30 a.m., the mortal remains of Williamson Jnr. were committed to the bowels of mother earth, after a short solemn sermon at the Roman Catholic Chapel, at the Cemetery in Agbovega.

That night Gomligo and his brother Agbenyega hardly slept. They virtually kept wake till day broke. They trembled feverishly with fear; for they have heard of how the ghost of a dead person would come at night to those he loved or hated. And they loved Williamson Jnr. very much, and he often spent many nights with them, in that very room. The fear they underwent that night was devastating.

People never died just for nothing in this part of the world. There was always some thing responsible for a person’s death, and the one’s ghost would want to disclose it to loved ones.

Throughout the night, they expected the ghost of their friend. They were ears to every noise outside and inside the room. When a goat bleated, they thought the hour of visitation was at hand. When a sheep coughed outside, they felt the time was ripe for the triumphant entry of the ghost of Williamson Jnr. Knee-deep in fear, they became convinced, all the more, when dogs barked. They felt these dogs were heralding in the dreaded apparition. They remained still and cold in bed. Finally, that straw that broke the camel’s back came. A cat, in an attempt to settle an old score with a traditional enemy - the mouse, forcefully chased one across the ceiling of the room in which Gomligo and Agbenyegah were sleeping. The boys simultaneously raised an alarm, shouting at the top of their voices. “We are dead, help! Help!! We are finished help!

Help!! Help!!!” Their father and their mother quickly sprang to their feet and rushed to their room. Gomligo narrated what happened, trembling nervously with fear. Soon their father discovered it was nothing more than a cat chasing a mouse across the ceiling. After he entered their room, their cat came into the room – with the mouse in its mouth.

The Modeta family from Ho departed finally after a week. The day they finally left, Mrs. Victoria Amegah and Mrs. Gloria Modeta, Williamson Jnr.’s mother went to see them off. As the departing team said good-bye, there was a renewed out-burst of tears. It was a compact that, no smiles will live there until they met again. It was a distressing scene.

72

C H A P T E R ELEVEN Nationalist activities and their commitment to the “Independence now” movement upset the Governor and all the DCs on the Black Island. Unlike the earlier educated sons of the Black Island, who uncompromisingly fought against their chiefs for participation in legislative assemblies and for constitutional reforms that would eventually lead to self-determination for the Black Island, Dr. (Dr.) Kwasi Badu and his new movement for the emancipation saw the chiefs, the farmers, the fishermen, the school leavers, the lorry drivers, artisans, market women, and workers of all walks of life, the poor, the alienated, the frustrated and the disillusioned, as an integral part of the struggle against the dehumansing white man’s rule.

Throughout the districts, towns and villages, branches of the movement for emancipation were formed. Rallies were held all over the Black Island. At these rallies the Islanders were educated on the necessity for the struggle against the white man’s rule. Consequently the Islanders had become more and more politically wide-awake and resolved to fight for its removal.

At some of the rallies Dr. (Dr.) Kwasi Badu would himself address the audience. He was a veritable son of the Black Island and was highly respected by all the people and admired by his foes. Not because he had had twelve years of learning in the white man’s home but because the people saw in him the dynamism, steadfastness of purpose, strength of character and genuine commitment to the struggle for emancipation. The DCs hated such rallies and often collaborated and even instigated some Islanders to thwart the efforts of the nationalists. These intrigues often resulted in nasty and bloody street fights and confusion among the Islanders.

One of such rallies was held at Agbovega. Despite the inability of the great nationalist leader and great son of the Black Island, Dr. (Dr.) Kwasi Badu to be present, the rally was nevertheless, successful. He was represented by Dr. de- Graft Cassava Tamakloe who read a speech written by Dr. (Dr.) Kwasi Badu himself.

On such occasions, school children would gather early in the morning to rehearse a few of their most melodious songs, and would march to the durbar ground, they would wait long hours 73

before the “big men” arrived. Gomligo, now in standard six and making remarkable progress, was the school hand-major.

He with Francis Afenyo had inspected the bands and was

convinced they were in order for the occasion. Gomligo liked these occasions a great deal. He would put on his starched and neatly ironed pair of khaki shorts over his white shirt and would use his handkerchief around his neck and knot it behind.

Soon all the children from the school, men and women from Agbovega and even people from nearby villages began to pour in unto the durbar ground. On the platform sat the big men.

Among them were Torgbui Fomeaka and Mr. Aborgah, the head teacher of R.C. Primary School. Rev. and Mrs. Amegah, Agbui Fomeaka, the chief farmer, the chief fisherman, the chief driver and the leader of the Market Women’s Union of Agbovega. After Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah had read the welcome address, Dr. de- Graft Cassava Tamakloe, who turned out in a black suit smartly mounted the podium and began to deliver the message from Dr. (Dr.) Kwasi Badu.

“Mr. Chairman, Torgbuiwo, Mamawo, Traditional Elders, Invited Guests, Fellow Workers Ladies and Gentlemen”. He began. “It is a pleasure to be among you today. The great nationalist leader, has asked me to apologise to you for his inability to show up personally, nevertheless he assures you that he is with you in spirit”. He paused to acknowledge the cheers from the audience.

“Long before the white came to the Black Island, our people managed their livelihood in accordance with their own philosophy of being. The White man, in an attempt to satisfy his curiosities

about the world, began to sail far and wide and got to the Black Island, the

habitation of the Black Islanders. He brought tangible things like, cloth, guns and gunpowder, alcohol and sugar from his hometown which he traded for tangible things like gold, diamonds, timber, ivory, hides and skins and copper, which are all plentiful on the Black Island.”

“As time went on, sailors in the white man’s hometown discovered the most fertile land here on earth, which they named the New World. White man started exploiting the wealth of this New World. Sooner, human labour was in short supply. The natives of the New World, worn

74

out with fatigue and sheer brutality, contracted epidemics of the worst kind of diseases and died. The few left could not meet the labour requirements of their enterprises. The need to satisfy this acute labour shortage, gave rise to the buying and selling of human beings by human beings. The trade in other things declined very fast. During this trade, millions of ablebodied Islanders were bought and sold as articles of trade and commerce. Men ceased to be men and were treated with unthinkable cruelty”.

“The Black Island and the civilisation of the Black Islander, was destroyed. Men and women from the Black Island were shipped in least ventilated ships across the Sea to the New World.

In the New World and else where under the lashes of cruel supervisors, men and women from the Black Island were made to undertake the most laborious, humiliating and dehumanising jobs ever done on earth. The Black Islanders, in certain cases, were castrated and made to attend on queens and the wives of noblemen. What a treatment! Meanwhile the money accruing from the sweat of the Black Islanders, was rapidly paving the way for more and more marvelous discoveries and inventions”.

Dr. de- Graft Cassava Tamakloe paused. Goose pimples were beginning to develop on the skins of most of the people among the audience out of pity for their forefathers’ untold sufferings and humiliation.

“Torgbuiwo, Traditional Elders, Ladies and Gentlemen, these inventions led to the manufacture of vast volumes of machines; machines that subsequently turned out goods in beyond belief quantities. As more and more machines were invented and more people became jobless as the machines took over the work that human beings did. This development rendered the trade in human cargo less attractive and cost-effective”.

“Secondly too much was produced. The surpluses were to be sold on the Black Island and raw materials like groundnuts, palm oils, cocoa; coffee, tea, and cotton among others were acquired to support industries in the white man’s home. Unfortunately, for us and fortunately for the White man, he saw amazingly plentiful quantities of the raw materials and opportunities for their increased production on the Black Island. On returning home, a family conference was held at which far-reaching decisions were taken.

Mr. Chairman, the White man having

carefully considered the extent to which the Black Island had been depeopled and the need for

75

increases production of raw materials rather on the Black Island, resolved to end the buying and selling of the Black Islanders. They agreed unanimously, to introduce a ‘legitimate trade’ and send back the Islanders to their hometown, too engage them more fully in the production of the much-needed raw materials.”

“Mr. Chairman, Torgbuiwo, Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the genesis of the White man's ‘burden’, the so called pacification mission of the primitive tribes of the Black Island. The White man began to assiduously campaign for the abolition of the trade in human beings, by decreeing it a taboo to all men on earth after practising it for over 300 years. The streets and market places of the White man's hometown became increasingly peopled with Black-Islanderformer-slaves. Men and women, who had no work to do. Men and women who were hungry and thirsty, men and women, against whom the White man had closed his doors, men and women whose sweat and toils built most cities in the White man’s land. This situation resulted in social vices like prostitution, pocket picking and robbery. The “hunter” thus suffered and the “antelope” also suffered. Though the freed men and women were unwilling to leave the towns and cities their labour and sweat had built, most of them were compulsorily hauled back to the Black Island”.

“The white man, Mr. Chairman, Torgbuiwo, Ladies and Gentleman, who before the trade in human beings had regarded and treated the Black Islanders as equals, quickly began to claim that the Islanders were primitive and barbarous and if left to themselves the Islanders would never improve beyond a certain point. The white men began to see the need to ‘civilise’ the Islanders. They did not know the Islanders were primitive and barbarous until there was a dire need for slave labour and raw materials. This commitment to civilise primitive Islanders through pacification missions is the White man's burden. Let me illustrate what happened on the Black Island with this allegory” “Once upon a time, some fortune seekers embarked on a fortune- seeking- mission into a great forest. After roaming for a very long time without getting anything of interest, they came upon a virgin lady. They quickly became very much excited and decided to rape her in turns. After several rounds of ruthless raping, the lady became unconscious. As a result of fear, they

76

decided to kill the lady. Her body was cut up into parts. Each man had portions of the lady’s “parts” according to his influence within the group.

The fortune seekers agreed that the “parts” of the lady should be preserved, in case the crime was ever detected, they could surrender the parts, to the parents and family of the virgin lady for a decent burial.

Different methods were used to preserve the parts of the lady, some of the fortune seekers used smoking to preserve their parts. Others employed salting and drying, refrigeration, frying and roasting among other methods to preserve their parts of the virgin lady. Several years after, the crime was detected, and the parts were retrieved and stitched together to represent the virgin lady. When the body of the virgin lady was laid in state, none of the members of the family could recognise her. She had, as it were, undergone too much change to be recognised. The crude threads of the stitches made the body look very strange.

The fortune seekers are the white nations that took part in slave trade and colonialism. The virgin lady is the African continent. The cutting into pieces is the partitioning of Africa among the European powers. The pieces of meat or parts of the murdered lady are African colonial dependencies as they are toady and the methods of preservation are the various colonial policies used by the European powers in Africa, for example, the Crown Colony System of the British, the French Policy of Assimilation, the Assimilado Policy of the Belgians etc. The detection of the crime and retrieval of the parts were struggle for independence by African countries and the crude threads of stitches are the colonial boundaries on the African continent.

Africa still remains within these colonial boundaries. This explains the difficulty Africa is facing today in thinking collectively and embarking upon the surest journey for independence and integration.”

“Part of the strategy, was the use of tricks on the Black Islanders. After serving the Black Islanders to intoxication, the White man presented them with ‘letters of friendship’ that were loaded with absurdities and equivocations and implored them to

thumb print them. In this

way several Islanders forthrightly signed away vast acreages of their lands to Whites. Even

77

where and when the Islanders would not sign any such ‘letters of friendship and trade’, they were over powered with machine guns that breathed smoke and fire and spelt instant death. For example, resistance movements like, the Azande Resistance of 1892 - 1912, which was a resistance movement

against the establishment of colonial rule by the Belgians, in Congo-

Kinshasa; the Sagrenti War of 1874 which was a war of resistance against the establishment of colonialism in the Gold Coast; the Bayaka Resistance 1895 - 1906; the Baluba Shankadi Resistance 1907 - 1917; and the Bashi-Lele Resistance 1900 – 1916, which all took place in Congo-Kinshasa against the establishment of Belgian colonial rule; and the separatist movement of

Kimbanguism among the Bakongo of Congo-Kinshasa, all succumbed the

superior technology of the White man. ” Dr. De-Graft Cassava Tamakloe removed his handkerchief from the pocket of his coat and cleaned the beads of sweat that had developed on his forehead.

“Rattling English, French or German with a distinctive parrot-like speed, Mr. Chairman, Torgbuiwo, Ladies and Gentlemen, little makes you a white man.

Eating fufu with spoons

hardly makes you an Englishman. Treating your mother tongue with scorn and refusing to speak it does not make you French. Sitting in the chamber of Deputies in France is but a camouflage and makes no Black Islander a White man.

Look, colleague Islanders, the

response is in intensifying the fight for emancipating the Black Island. The Black Island is for the Islanders. Home, my good friends, is home however wretched.”

“Arise, my people. Arise and fight despotism and subjugation, repression and exploitation.

Today the battle cry, tomorrow there will be the shouts of victory, and liberty. Sleeping people arise and fight, before the last weights of gold left our shores. You cannot be nonaligned or disinterested.”

“Mr. Chairman, Torgbuiwo, Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe you all now do understand in a most elaborate and a most comprehensive way the task confronting us. Long live the struggle for emancipation, long live the great nationalist leader, and long live the Black Island. Thank you”

78

Dr. De-Graft Cassava Tamakloe ended at last. The Atsiegbekor drumming and dancing group, the Cantata group of the C.Y.O. and the Catholic Brass Band and other cultural groups put up colourful and brilliant performances. It had never occurred to most of them; the White man principally furthered only his narrow and selfish interest on the Black Island. Some doubted others believed sincerely.

79

CHAPTER

T WELVE

Akpaka had summoned his elder brother, Agbenyega, at the Court of Torgbui Fomeaka on allegations murder and deliberately casting a spell on him. That was why people had gathered at Torgbui Fomeaka’s palace for a hearing of the matter. Torgbui Kpodo of Kpave had bequeathed two large plots of land to his children at his death. Akpaka and Agbenyega were too young then to have understood what actually happened. On becoming of age, Akpaka was impressed upon by his maternal aunt that the smaller piece of land was bought by his mother and advised him not to share the right of entry and use with his half-brother, Agbenyega.

Akpaka as a result arrogated to himself the exclusive right to use the second plot. He sold palm trees, and leased the land out to farmers, without giving any account thereof to his elder brother, Agbenyega who by virtue of being the eldest, held both pieces of land in trust for his clan. Agbenyega tried to make his brother understand the matter, but the more he tried, the more obstinate Akpaka became.

Akpaka again went and sold some palm trees to Horsuglo on this piece of land. On learning of the matter, Agbenyega went to the forest and drove the workers of Horsuglo out of the land. He warned that whoever entered the forest again did so at his own risk. Akpaka laughed to ridicule the whole idea and encouraged the workers of go ahead, when the matter was reported to him. He told them not to be scared by his brother’s threats because his barks were more dangerous than his bites. Three days later, a snake bit one of Horsuglo’s workers, and before they could rush him to the village, he died. The next day, when a team of men was sent to inspect the place of the incident, Akpaka in an attempt to cut a palm stock, which was hanging across the path, sustained a serious cut on his wrist and nearly bled to death.

When soothsayers were consulted on the matter, it was disclosed that, Agbenyega was responsible for all the mishaps. As a result, Akpaka went and summoned his half-brother at Torgbui Fomeaka’s palace. When all the elders had gathered the case was started. It was first put to Akpaka narrated his case thus: “Our father, Kpodo, I was told, left behind the piece of land we now all use. This land has been under my elder brother’s custody ever since. This apart, my aunt told me, my mother, out of her own diligence, acquired another piece of land and I have assumed the right to use it 80

exclusively ever since. My brother, whose mother was reputed for her idleness, left nothing behind for him. Out of sheer greed, my brother had been trying, without success, to claim the land for my father’s line of descent. This has resulted in misunderstanding and confusion between my brother and me. This was climaxed, by the demise one of Horsuglo’s workers and the injury I sustained.”

“On consulting soothsayers, it was discovered that my brother, Agbenyega, is the one responsible that is why I have summoned him here, charging him with murder and willfully causing harm to me. I have spoken’ Akpaka ended. Whispers and murmurs were heard all about the courtroom.

Agbenyega narrated his version of the story thus: “Akpaka is my father’s son and I have no ill feelings against him.

Regrettably, my brother has become a victim of the malicious

conspiracies of iniquitous men and women, whose main ambition is the fragmentation of our father’s property in order to take self-seeking benefit of any such situation. Before our father died, we were both too young to know much. Some said our father owned one of the pieces of land in common with Akpaka’s mother, I checked to establish the truth of the matter. From trustworthy sources, I gathered that, Akpaka mother lent my father the sum of £20 when he wanted to buy the second piece of land. Shortly after, our father died, before he could pay the money. At his funeral, I was made to understand, Akpaka’s mother was paid back her £20 pounds. She also passed away three moons after my father’s funeral. That was some 36 years ago. I have tried with little success, to bring this home to my brother, about the land. But he had ever since arrogated to himself the right to sell palm trees without rendering any account to the family. I decided to give up, in the end of it all, because people might think I am jealous of my brother’s fortune. Our father, our ancestors, the world of the spirits of the departed should settle their own matter. I am but a kid and know nothing about the death of Horsuglo’s worker nor am I responsible in any way for the injury my brother sustained.

I have spoken”

Agbenyega submitted.

After a series of cross-examinations the elders left the courtroom to go and consult Amegakpui.

No child had ever seen Amegakpui. Few women can claim to have seen him. Only the old

81

men knew him. He is reputedly very old. No old man alive had ever seen his youth. Not even Torgbui Fomeaka or Torgbui’s father or grandfather. All the same the elders had always consulted him for counselling wherever there was the need to take far-reaching decisions or pass judgement. This is because he was there right from the beginning of time and nothing is unknown to him. Amegakpui only made himself available under trees and behind houses. He never entered anybody’s house. He neither ate nor drank from any man’s house. He lived very far away and nobody knows exactly where. Maybe he did not want to identify himself with any individual. May be he went to no man’s house so that he might pass judgement without fear or favour. His decisions were hardly appealed against and his judgement was hardly ever challenged. Only fools did.

When the elders returned from consulting Amegakpui the court ruled that Agbenyega had spoken the truth, for the old men were there at the funeral before the payment of the said £20 was done. They warned Akpaka to unreservedly surrender his hold on the land. As to whether Agbenyega was responsible for the death of Horsuglo’s worker and the injury Akpaka sustained, the court could not establish. But since Akpaka insisted that his brother had a hand in them, the elders resolved to establish the truth or otherwise of the matter, by sending them to the oracle of Aka at Abe. There and then, before any one of them was allowed to go home, Agbui was mandated to lead the delegation, to Abe, a place near Lome, near the mass of boiling salt water, which stretched beyond the reach of thee human eyes. Agbenyega and Akpaka would be seeing it for the first time. Agbui had seen it for more than he can recall. He swam in it when he was attending school at Keta.

82

C H A P T E R THIRTEEN Blowing from the far north, are the skin-cutting harmattan winds.

The weather was

particularly cold and dry. The greenery of nature had given way to brownness and yellowness.

The once heavily canopied trees were now virtually naked. Harmattan, the paragon of art, had killed all forms of life and feeling. One hardly saw beyond a stone throw. Children in the village had become white with the approach of the harmattan. Cracks were beginning to develop on the lips of a good many people. Little laughing was undertaken, lest more cracks developed on lips. People had become very economical with laughing as a social occurrence.

Laughing as social stimulus did not much become contagious because people made special effort to control it for good reason. A great deal of children and a few grown-ups had developed complex networks of cracks, on their legs, which were the result of the inclemences of the harmattan. These complex networks of cracks looked like socks of net on the victims’ legs on close examination.

Clever victims of the inclemences of the harmattan hid their networked legs in pairs of trousers. A risk of exposure was a risk of loss of reputation. Even ladies, for fear of putting their reputation at stake, insulated their delicate legs with pairs of trousers to prevent the wicked harmattan from practising on them. The farther one moved north the severer the harmattan became. Few ladies actually ever developed any such cracks on their delicate and expensive legs.

This is because they have had knowledge of beauty and the beauty of

knowledge had not departed from their memories. This knowledge included awareness of the chemicals that neutralised the dehydrating capacity of the harmattan. Though chemistry is generally a difficult subject for most ladies, they nevertheless, graduated from the senior schools, well aware of the chemicals for keeping their bodies moist. However, any time they stood in the streets of their villages, in isolated pairs of one boy one girl on moon light nights, mosquitoes of the lower Volta ran amok at them on a mission of pacifying a morally bankrupt generation.

Torgbui Fomeaka and the elders of Agbovega were relaxing under the big shed tree in front of his palace, as the cold and dry harmattan winds blew. They had experienced several harmattan seasons but that of this season was rather severe and inhospitable. They discussed how such 83

sever harmattan winds had provoked wild spreading bush fires that transmogrified fields, food stuffs, animals, plantations and even human settlements into ashes, resulting in starvation and acute human suffering. When discussed the ravaging bush fires, occasioned by the harmattan, Torgbui Fomeaka, remembered with much be disappointed, how the vast acreage of his cocoa farm got burnt at Ahamansu. He greatly hated the harmattan for this singular unpleasant incident. Then he remembered how his family suffered as a result of the destruction of the cocoa farm. He and his family did not produce food stuffs, because the money accruing from the sale of the cocoa was more than enough to buy food for the whole family the year round.

Food was so cheap then, especially the imported grains. He had always categorically maintained that it taught him one thing. They suddenly changed their topic and began to talk about the white man’s rule.

“I shall always remember what we experienced under the Dzamani people”. Torgbui Fomeaka recollected.

“Your experiences are but a joke compared to mine. The brutality we suffered. Hmm, it is difficult to say, my good friends.” Torgbui Aborgah recounted.

“I well remember,” Torgbui Fomeaka began, “the construction of the railroad from Lome to Kpalime. I was one of the forty-five strong men carried away from Agbovega to work on the railroad construction. The cruel supervisors, who barked out orders at us as if we were slaves, ceased the foodstuff that we were made to carry along with us from home. Water was all we drank all day long. After working for three days without food, Kpodo and I took permission to attend nature’s call, and never came back. The following day we were at Akuse, after spending the night at Agbovega. We crossed the Volta in a canoe. There at Akuse, there were specific days for working for the white man. It was every Saturday and was called communal labour. It was however just as compulsory as the one we felt behind but only on specific days”.

Torgbui Fomeaka said; and removed his pipe from his mouth, smoke oozed out freely.

“Most of us lost our domestic animals – ducks, goats, sheep and fowls. We were made to carry these items on relay basis. You carried them to nearest village where more was added to the stock and the villagers there also carried them to the next village. If they reached a village and the people were not at home, you simply continued to the next and nearest village until the

84

white man got to his station, often located on the coast. It was a crime to remain at home when you were not sick, lest you were arrested and sentenced to several days of forced labour on the white man’s coffee or oil palm plantation. You were lucky, if you were fed once a day. It was fashionable for us to sit facing different directions, each with his back against the other, so that we could spot the white man before he had drawn too near to make escape impossible. The watchword was “adiba didi”. It was unwise and indeed suicidal to remain where you were on hearing, “adiba didi” (ripen pawpaw). At the mention of this word we all ran as quickly as our legs would allow in the opposite direction of where the person who raised the alarm was facing. We swore an oath never to raise a false alarm and nobody ever did. It was a matter of life and death and nobody was mischievous”. Torgbui Fomeaka recollected.

“I hate trying to recount my experiences under the yoke of the white man, especially the Dzamani people. The more I recollect the untold and unprecedented suffering we underwent, under the Dzamani people, the more I re-experience that real and traumatising brutality.”

Torgbui Aborgah noted. “I remember with much horror and cold how my elder brother was beaten to death, Fomeaka, I hope you well recall that humiliating incident. Don’t you?”

Torgbui Aborgah demanded from Torgbui Fomeaka, his friend. “Why not.” Torgbui Fomeaka, replied. The other elders listened with much anxiety. They were not old enough to have witnessed all these things. But they had often heard disgusting stories of the brutalities of the white man.

“How did it all happen?” one man from Kpave inquired.

“Hmm, it is rally difficult to say.” Aborgah began.

“We were to report at Kpalime form Agbovega on foot a distance of over 45 miles, to continue the construction of the railroad. Unfortunately my elder brother’s wife had given birth to a baby boy the day before. The woman therefore needed his attention. My brother as a result, had to stay at home with the hope that the white man would understand the matter.

Unpredictably, one of the black guards, who happened to have attempted and failed, winning the woman to wife, thought the time had come for him to settle an old score. This guard noted my brother’s absence with delight. We could not speak the white man’s language. Only the

85

guard spoke it. We explained to him and he said something to the boss, the White man and we thought all was well.”

“Three days later, we returned from farm to see our brother, much to our dismay, rolling helplessly in great pain, on the ground. Children and all other people who had returned from their farms heavily surrounded him. Three guards and two white men, we were told, had called in our absence and without questioning beyond ascertaining that he was the person who had not reported for work that day, started beating and booting him. Eyewitnesses reported that a hole was dug in the ground and my brother was asked to demonstrate what he did to the woman before she became pregnant. As he complied with the instruction, the guards kept pounding his waist with the butts of their guns. My brother died, before we could do anything to save him.”

“In fact I have always maintained and sworn that if I had been at home that day, the two white men would never have left the village. But it is gratifying to assert here that when the two guards came back to see how my brother might have been responding to treatment, after they had so senselessly and mercilessly and ruthlessly and brutally beaten him up it reminded us of the Datutagba war. A coco-nut tree now stood over their mortal remains”. Torgbui Aborgah stated quite emotional, gnashing his teeth with disgust. Tears melted from his eyes and he petitioned that they stopped any further discussions of the white man’s atrocities.

“They tell us our ways of life are bad and that we need a change. Our domestic animals they collected free of charge. As if to add insults to injury, they made us work on their coffee and oil palm plantations without pay, without food and without rest. We Islanders are not stones, animals or wood, we are human beings. The white man ought to have known this” Torgbui Fomeaka added.

“Now that the more cruel Dzamani people are gone and the more liberal Englishie people and Fransy people, who have built all the big places in the city and towns have taken their place, what are your views about their rule? Should the young men who have had much learning in the white man’s land rule the Black Island instead?” an elder asked.

86

“Long before the white man came to the Black Island, the Islanders ruled themselves. We did not ask then to come and rule us. They used dubious means to impose their rule on us. When they came, they simply begged for land to build their houses, mission schools and their fortes and castles. They bought goods and sold goods. And they signed treaties of friendship and trade and non-aggression pacts. You know the white man, after he had served our grandfathers to drunkenness with gin, he produced from his pocket, letters he had prepared and ask the drunken Islanders to attach their thumb prints” Torgbui Fomeaka explained.

“And the young men who went to read the very big books of knowledge, like Dr. (Dr.) Kwasi Badu, saw and read these letters of friendship and trade.

These were papers ostensibly

prepared to foster friendship and trade between the white man and the Islanders and written in the tongue of the white man. The white man forgot to hide these letters from sons of the Black Island. The Islanders, discovered to their horror and disgust, the startling revelations. These letters friendship ands trade, they discovered, bore witness that the Black Islanders had bequeathed their lands and their rights to rule themselves to the white man. In fact, that was not what our fathers and grandfathers told us. They were letters of friendship and trade and protection. They could not read or write” Aborgah elaborated. The rest listen with undivided attention to the machinations of the Whiteman.

“What is all this for, I cannot agree better with Dr. de. Graft Cassava Tamakloe’s speech.”

Fomeaka replied. “Yes, I well agree with his message. The Black Islanders should rule themselves. As I said earlier on, we did not ask them to come and rule us. Before they came, we were ruling ourselves. They young men, the nationalist leaders, who are itching to put their learning into practice, must mount the saddle” Torgbui Fomeaka explained.

“And continue from where the white man had left off” Aborgah added.

“No, to start afresh. Continuing from where the white man left off would mean giving then the go ahead to further their own interest just like the white man”.

87

“Since the young learned men argued that the white man is a cheat, they should start by not cheating us, which would then not be the continuation of what the white-skinned man had started” Torgbui Fomeaka corrected.

“I do agree with you, that our young and learned sons should rule the Island, but on the other hand I find it a bit difficult to bring myself to understand and ascribe totally to the view from that, it had been cheating and cheating, and nothing more from the white man. I understand Mr. Dr. de. Graft Cassava Tamakloe’s argument, but I have my own reasons for thinking there had been some fellow feeling at play on the part of the white man.” Aborgah pointed out.

“Perhaps what you are seeing as an element of fellow-feeling are merely the unintended consequences of the grand design to facilitate the cheating process. A day before Dr. de. Graft Cassava Tamakloe’s speech, I thought in much the same way as you do now.” Torgbui Fomeaka observed.

“Well Fomeaka and our respected elders, if we should be less deceptive and more rational, we should give much thought to what went into building all the harbours, the roads, bridges, schools, hospitals and the railway networks all about the Island”. Aborgah petitioned the gathering of elders.

“Those things are exactly what I mean by the unintended consequences of the grand design to cheat the Islanders. They were provided to facilitate the cheating of our people. As Dr. de.

Graft Cassava Tamakloe’s noted in his speech, that is why the roads and railways led to only places where minerals like gold, diamonds, copper and the rest were found. The schools were established to turn out artisans and clerks to work at the white man’s firms. Any doubt, therefore, that such products now scorn their own people and land, and look down upon the noble profession of farming, fishing, palm wine tapping or herbal medicine?” Any doubt therefore that, no opportunities for higher education were provided until the nationalist leaders began to vigorously attack them for deliberately denying the Islanders such opportunities”, replied Torgbui Fomeaka.

88

“At any rate, - the Islanders managed to get to the white man’s land, across the mass of boiling salt water. There, they discovered that the palm kernel, the palm oil, the timber, the gold, the diamond, among the host of others, sold at fabulous profits. They made ten times over. It was from these excesses that they bought materials to build the harbours, to construct the railroads, to erect the market sheds, and to establish the schools and hospitals. Nothing came from the soils of the white man’s home. Indeed nothing at all. Where then, is the white man’s burden?

So you see why they are reluctant about giving the burden they are voluntarily carrying purportedly in the interest of, and for the Black Islanders, even when the Islanders demand to carry their own burden?” That was Torgbui Fomeaka re-echoing Mr. Tamakloe’s speech.

The women began to bring in food. Torgbui had arranged for the people to be fed. Amegah’s wife, Victoria, took charge of the preparation of the food on such occasions. She was known in the area for exceptionally delicious meals. Torgbui never forgot to let her do the cooking.

Palm wine was served before and after the meals. They talked about so many things. They talked about how friendly their fathers were towards one another across villages, the cordial inter-tribal and inter-village marriages, outdooring ceremonies, puberty rites, initiation and circumcision rites, deaths and funerals, hunting expeditions, when the grass started burning and a lot more. They recounted the season Torgbui Fomeaka killed an elephant and they remembered much vividly the three days of feasting.

89

C H A P T E R F OURT E E N Gomligo and his friends had missed Torgbui’s company greatly. Torgbui had been too busy of late to attend to the curiosity of Gomligo and his colleagues. Each time they went to the old man’s place, they always met people, people who had come to seek advice on some issue.

Another day they called again, and for the first time in several days, they met the old man alone. He was peacefully relaxing in his armchair. On hearing their toot-steps, he raised his head and suppressed a big yawn. He welcomed them. The boys told him they had come to greet him.

Torgbui put his pipe into his mouth and inhaled. Alas, there was no fire in it Gomligo read the situation, and before the old man could ask for fire, he dashed out and brought a piece of smouldering charcoal. The old man pressed it onto the tobacco in the pipe and began to smoke it. He inhaled and exhaled in a manner peculiar to old men of age. He is an ancient man and the oldest man in the whole land. Nobody knew how old he is. Nobody wrote in the day he was born. Dates were calculated by reference to important events of the year, for instance when an important person died, when the sun and moon fought for hegemony in the skies, and the number of farms made since a man was born. There were two farms in one year, a major season and minor season. Nobody challenged him when he claimed he was 120 years. Some said he was more than. Others whispered he was much less. None said so in he is presence.

Gomligo petitioned on behalf of his friends for a story form the old man. The old man did not like the idea much, but he little wished to displease the children, whose company he had kept for long. He decided to teach them a moral lesson.

“Once upon a time”, he began “Time, time” they responded cheerfully. “There was once a man” he began. “This man had three sons. The eldest was called Asi followed by Afor and Fodo the youngest. These three promising young men decided to travel outside home to seek their fortune. They accordingly set out, each to a different town, far, far away from home, but they were writing home to parents. Fodo, the youngest came home at the end of every year and bought gifts of clothes, drinks and tobacco to his parents, and other members of the family. By the close of the fifth year, Fodo had built a very imposing house for the family that had hitherto lived in a wretched thatch house. The tow others – Asi and Afor got money all the same, and 90

had become important and prosperous men. But they forgot all about home. Home became remote and obscure to them they felt ashamed to tell their proud friends where they really came from, let alone identify themselves with the small village such as they hailed from. They married flamboyant and elegant city dwelling ladies, who were sophisticated both in birth and in education, and gave birth to children who only, spoke the white man’s language. But they never came home with them. Their children must live modern lives, and modern life, to them was divorced from village life”.

“Meanwhile, Fodo always felt sorry at the plight of the villagers. He struggled through various agencies and brought, schools, churches, clinics, streets, good drinking water to the village.

One day their father seriously fell ill, and they were all written to, to com home. The youngest (Fodo) was the first to come back home, and began to attend to their father. Asi and Afor came a few days later. Their father quickly summoned them all before the elder of the village. Asi and Afor had not visited home since they left, for well over 25 years, and they were startled at the development projects taking place, and the rate at which the village had developed. Their father scolded both of them, before the elders and cursed them saying “You have both rejected and neglected home. You have shirked you responsibility towards me, and towards you mother. I spent my money, time and energy on bringing you up with the hope that you might also care for me in my old age, but you have refused. Look at what Fodo has done for the whole village. From today onwards, both of you will become servants of your brother, Fodo.

He will do no work again because he has done more than enough already. You Afor, you will carry your brother Fodo, any time, and to anywhere, he will desire. And you Asi, you will from this day do all the odd jobs such as your brother, Fodo and his issues forever. Curse be upon you head. Since then….” A knock was heard at the door and Kodzovi entered.

“Have you called in peace”. The old man asked before Kodzovi could greet them.

“It is a matter of some urgency. He had him an urgent message from Torgbui Aborgah of Abor. When Kodzovi left, Torgbui Fomeaka thought and thought of what could have happened. Aborgah himself was at his ended three days before, if he had anything pressing, could he not have informed him? It should be a new development. Gomligo and his friends begged leave of the old man and left for their homes.

91

‫٭‬

‫٭‬

‫٭‬

‫٭‬

Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah had a serious stomachache and was taken to the Keta Health Centre where he was diagnosed as suffering from strangulated hernia and referred to the KorleBu Hospital for an operation. His grandfather, Dorfenyo kple Ahiagbe meleo Amegah Dorfenyo Gake Ahiagbee, (The possession of a luxurious bed is no guarantee against failure in courtship. The big man possessed a luxurious bed but has had all his love proposals rejected), had hernia, his father Torgbui Fomeaka had hernia, and he was also grappling with a notorious hernia. This is a tragedy of a bequeathal of hernia over three generations. Perhaps more than three generations because he had no idea about his great grandfather’s medical history nor what the medical fate of his children and grandchildren would be.

The absence of a written record on his family’s medical history, reminded Rev. Abraham about what has been said about Africans not having history but only folklore. He wondered whether all European families have written records of their Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid (DNA), the blue print of life, from the beginning of time. Certain diseases in Africa were considered abominable and nobody wanted to remember who and who suffered it for too long. In fact, the earlier they were forgotten the better.

The DC gave him a note to attach to his referral letter to a British doctor at Korle-Bu. Rev. and Mrs. Abraham Amegah arrived in Accra on board a Bedford wooden passenger truck. The journey started at about 4. 30 a.m. and they were given a VIP treatment of seating in front right from Keta. The trip was delayed for some 45 minutes at Sogakope because the ferry across the River Volta was at the Tefle end of the river bank when they got there. They had to wait for the ferry to get full load from the Tefle end. The British doctor was not at the hospital when they got there. Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah was not used to waiting in queues for his personal record folders at the Keta Health Centre. Most of the nurses and the paramedics were members of his Church and they did not allow him to join the queue. He would not have cared to join the queue, since it would have offered him the opportunity to demonstrate humility in discipleship.

But here he was at the Korle-Bu Hospital of the Gold Coast, frustrated in a queue that moved like a snail for more than an hour, with his hernia continuously tormenting him to remind him

92

of the need to act with dispatch on the problem. Here he was, stranded like a rat and lost in the sea of anonymity at Korle-Bu Hospital. The man, who walked the streets of Keta as if the sun took permission from him before rising, was now stranded like a rat. The feeling of confidence and moral authority with which he had walked the streets of Keta, had melted away completely and a compelling sense of inferiority and helplessness over powered him. Eventually, the necessary folders were procured and he was directed to where he should go for consultation.

There were so many sick people at the hospital. He saw one paramedic and a nurse drawing a stretcher with a patient totally covered with cloth on it. There was whispering that the man on the stretcher had died that morning after an operation on his hernia.

Vikee became very much afraid and asked her husband whether he would be operated upon.

Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah said to his wife, ‘Woman do not be afraid, be of great faith, for the Lord is with us and that cannot be my portion in the Lord when I am operated upon.’ Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah was wondering what all these doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, drivers, receptionists, accounts clerks, cleaners and the hundreds of other paramedics would have been doing if people were not falling sick. He soliloquized that if Jesus Christ should come back again and decide to heal the sick and afflicted there would be unemployment for all these people. Fortunately, Reverend reminded himself that, when Jesus Christ comes again he will only seat in judgement over his people.

Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah wandered what exactly happened in the Garden of Eden to have so much provoked God, the merciful Father, to decree death on humanity in spite of the fact that death was not part of His original plan for mankind and especially when that was the very first offence Adam and Eve had committed. Was it really the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that they ate or something more provoking and unacceptable to the heavenly framework of God? If God’s original plan was to let man live outside the authority of death forever, why did He put the forbidden tree in the garden in the first place? Did God not know well in advance that man was never going to be able to resist the temptation of eating the forbidden fruit once Lucifer who God had driven from Heaven had taken permanent residence on earth? Why did God allow Lucifer to maintain his powers after Lucifer was driven from heaven over his rebellion for democratisation of power and authority in Heaven? Was it fair on

93

the part of God to punish generations yet unborn for an offence their great-grand-parents committed a very, very long time ago?

If the present misery and suffering that mankind is confronted with are not in accordance with God’s original plan, will it be fair to say God has failed mankind. Or has mankind provoked God to fail in achieving his original plan? Could God, with all his experience, not exercise restraint and mercy in the face of naivety from Adam and Eve who He had created? Did God regret the punishment He gave Adam and Eve and posterity? Perhaps God regretted his harsh reaction to the disobedience of the innocent pair of human beings and decided to send His son to reconcile man with Himself. Mankind in apparent rebellion against the mission and vision of God crucified the messenger of Truth from Heaven. To mankind God was trying to lock the stable doors after the horses had bolted away. In His anger God permitted and sanctioned so much suffering contrary to His original plan for mankind. Rev quickly discovered that his thought pattern amounted to putting God on trial. He withdrew his wick thoughts and apologised to God and prayed that God would deliver him from the temptation of ever putting Him on trial. Rev Amegah blamed himself for inability to control his thoughts and wandered what ordinary people thought about God when confronted with the vicissitudes of life. He ascribed glory to the name of God and said Amen.

Just us Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah was retreating from this theological thought trial of God, the DC for Keta, Mr. Williams-Stratford appeared like an apparition on the corridor, in the company of another European. The DC was in Accra three days earlier and had come to see the doctor about Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah’s problem. The DC embraced the Reverend and his wife and introduced them to Dr. Wilberforce Hardcastle, a surgeon at the hospital. He was one of the few White men who had accepted the challenge of bringing light to the forgotten parts of the Africa. He loved Africa as a continent. He also loved the Gold Coast as a country. The land is good but the people are primitive and naive. They were on a difficult mission, the mission of pacifying the primitive tribes of the Lower Volta. This is the White man’s burden, the burden of bringing light to the doldrums of darkness.

94

Within ten minutes Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah was invited to see Dr. Hardcastle in his consulting room. After examination, it was confirmed that he was suffering from strangulated hernia. The doctor told him that his life was not in danger and asked him to come the following day for an operation. Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah went to spend the night at the Accra Headquarters of his Church. That evening there was a prayer meeting at the Church to ask for divine protection for him to go through the operation successfully.

Dr. Wilberforce Hardcastle did the operation himself with the assistance of one other doctor and a nurse. A local anesthesia was administered on him before the operation. It was a successful operation. During his stay at the hospital not a single day passed without people dying. Two to five people died every day at the Korle-Bu Hospital. He was worried that some of these people must have died without accepting Jesus Christ as the Truth and the Light, the Alpha and the Omega. He said to himself, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few’.

Evangelisation would have to be intensified to save more people because the last days were near. He recalled a joke that one of their white lecturers at the Seminary in Cape Coast told them. According to the lecturer, three evangelists, an American, a European and an African were asked how they determined God’s share of the collections they had in church. The American said he drew a small circle of about three feet in diameter on the ground, stood inside it and threw all the money up into the sky. All the money that fell outside the circle was for God and what fell within the circle was deemed to be payment for his personal efforts in the service of the Lord. The European stated that he simply drew a line on the ground, stood on it and threw the collection into the sky. Everything that fell on the right hand side of the line was for God, whilst everything that fell on the left side was deemed to be payment for his personal efforts in the service of the Lord. The African replied by saying that he determined God’s share of church collections by throwing all the money up into the sky. Everything that fell back onto the ground was deemed to be rejected by God and was taken as payment for his personal efforts in the service of the Lord. They were wonderful evangelists, with strategic methods of determining God’s share of their collections in church, Rev Amegah thought to himself. He however noted with considerable displeasure, the attempt in the joke to portray the African

95

evangelist as working solely for himself and denied God His share, as another evidence of a negative portrayal of the Black man.

In his desperation, Rev. Amegah quoted 2 Timothy 3: 1-4 to support what he was experiencing in the hospital. ‘In the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self-assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, disloyal, having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanders, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong, puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God’.

Throughout his stay in hospital, Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah was not afraid of death but his wife was. The lessons he learnt at the Korle-Bu Hospital were overwhelming. For example, accident victims were brought every day. Some were dead and others were seriously injured.

Sick people were being drawn in wheel chairs because they could not walk. The pain and suffering of other patients made his hernia look like a big joke. Doctors and nurses moved from room to room under much pressure to attend to the sick.

There was a tall and beautiful nurse called Grace Lamptey, who was very kind to him and treated his wounds compassionately. As she removed the dressing and cleaned his wounds with hydrogen peroxide, it was impossible not to see his biological weapon of mass destruction. The Bible says that only a man’s wife may see his nakedness. But here he was, compelled by circumstances beyond his control to allow a beautiful nurse like the one treating him, to use his biological weapon of mass destruction as item for practical lesson in nursing. He remembered that on one occasion as she was dressing his wounds, his weapon was aroused and its head rose like an agama lizard, the nurse smiled and said sorry.

The Bible says that if any part of your body tempts you, you should cut it off. His hernia had tempted him and he has had it cut off. As for his weapon of mass destruction it was not tempting him. It was only doing an identification exercise and recognised the nurse as a Good Samaritan who was simply helping her master. He was discharged after staying in hospital for one week.

96

CHAPTER

FIFTT E E N

Lumor Fomeaka had returned home for more than three moons now. He had spent much time at Takoradi in the area far beyond the big river and even farther still away from the big river, where after resigning from the rail road construction he became an employee of rich timber merchant. Lumor was a Christian and occasionally went to church. He did not limit himself to any particular church. He attended any one that pleased him and changed chapels frequently.

Unlike his younger brother, Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah, Lumor participated in every ritual dedicated to the ancestral gods. Lumor ate and drank anything that was offered to these gods. He was not a member of any of the cults. When it was time for contributions to perform rites, he would say, Christians were forbidden to do so. He however, volunteered to slaughter the rams and goats or do the cooking of the dzemkple. He never declined to eat what was offered him.

Rumour had it that, Lumor once hid some ‘dzemkple’ and some goat meat in his cloth. The story goes, that after taking more drink than was good for him, Lumor stood up to dance in the heat of drumming and dancing, apparently forgetting that his cloth was playing host to some contraband goods. The dzemkple and the meat dropped onto the ground and children rushed to pick them up. There was laughter all over the place and some people said something about Christians who ate dzemkple and kept the rest in the cloth they took to church. Since then, children called him ‘dzemkple’. Nobody ever asked Lumor about the day he would go back to Takoradi, nor did he tell anybody about when he intended going back. But one thing was certain. The one moon of leave he claimed his was spending had been over and he was now well into the third moon.

Lumor had earlier on in the day, left for Abor. The market day before, Lumor met the woman to whom Agbui sold his catches of grasscutters. She had run short of money and Agbui had persuaded his brother Lumor to help the woman. Lumor was rather reluctant, but in the end he gave £10 to the woman through Agbui. It was in a bid to collect this money back that Lumor left for Abor. He arrived when the woman was absent from the house. Lumor narrated the whole story to her husband Akpalu. Akpalu did not take the story kindly and sensed something fishy about the whole matter. Having heard several stories about how people brought up in big 97

towns collected people’s wives; Akpalu and his friends accused Lumor of being in an amorous relationship with the woman started beating him with clubs and sticks. It was around 6.00 p.m. in the evening when the beating started. Lumor become unconscious and they carried him to the house of Torgbui Aborgah. His mouth bled profusely and some blood came from his nose as well. His forehead had got swollen. Torgbui Aborgah became very angry with Akpalu for what he had done. Akpalu had taken the laws of the land into his own hands and had acted too quickly and too emotionally. He decided to send a message to Torgbui Fomeaka of Agbovega.

Lumor was in great pain and vomited blood.

The beating he had received at the hands of

Akpalu and his friends had resulted in a serious dislocation all over his body. Akpalu’s wife, Awushie, soon returned and on hearing of her husband’s behaviour, she began to shake nervously with anger against him. She said she had informed her husband about the matter as soon as she returned.

Lumor had died before Torgbui Fomeaka could get to Abor the following day. Fear and feelings of uncertainty descended on the whole Abor. It was an abomination for a man to die this way. It was a crime against the land and the gods and the people. It was also a crime against the colonial administration.

The person could not be buried until the colonial

administration had heard of the story, seen the body and ascertained the cause of the death. It was whispered that the white doctors would remove the veins and arteries through which the man’s blood flowed and other parts. The matter was reported to the three policemen who had come to Abor from that day from Keta, the DCs town. Akpalu was arrested together with his accomplices. Lumor’s body was sent to Keta together with the suspects. The horrific event had traumatised everybody. Torgbui Fomeaka left for Agbovega to disclose the tragedy that had be fallen Lumor.

Before Torgbui Fomeaka could reach Agbovega people met him on the way and they wanted to inquire into the truth or otherwise of the story. He confirmed it. Women held their breasts firmly onto their chests in awe. Men vigorously shook their heads in disbelieve and gnashed their teeth with profound range. Children stampeded about in confusion and untold fear. Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah and Gomligo were asked to follow up to Keta and bring Lumor’s body back for burial.

98

Agbovega was greatly feared by all her neighbours and nobody dare raise a hand against her inhabitants. For if they did the consequences would be tremendously disastrous. It had always been Akpalu, that rabble-rouser and son of a bitch, that had challenged the bravery of Agbovega with his bastardly actions. He very nearly provoked war between Agbovega and Abor that was when he embarked on unlawful and forcible pilgrimage into the womanhood of a married woman from Agbovega.

The story goes that Akpalu was passing to Horsuglo’s tapping ground one day when he met the woman harvesting cassava. Akpalu branched there purporting to offer her a help. The unsuspecting woman welcomed Akpalu’s offer to assist her. He was red-hot with the diabolical desire of embarking on a pilgrimage into her womanhood. He sprang upon the unfortunate and feeble woman, brought her flat onto the ground and ate of the fruit of knowledge and truth in the centre of her garden. The woman resisted fiercely. But what is the resistance of feeble woman in the face of an irrepressible appetite of a hungry and angry man? As the old adage goes, “The disease that will kill a man often begins as an appetite and the housefly that has nobody to advise it follows the corpse into the grave”. After gratifying himself, Akpalu swore to kill the woman should she ever breathe a syllable of the incident to anybody. On returning home, however, the woman quickly reported the matter to Torgbui Fomeaka. The elders had much difficulty in restraining her husband from dealing with the matter the way he thought appropriate, - to dispatch Akpalu to the world of the ancestors with a matchet. When Akpalu was tried, the elders fined him two rams, three bottles of schnapps and a pot of palm wine.

Many moons after this incident, the relationship between Agbovega and Abor became progressively bitter. It took time for the relationship to become normal. It was this very Akpalu who had the nerves to beat a man to death on mere suspicion of having an affair with his wife.

99

CHAPTER

S IXT E E N

Funeral preparations for the late Lumor were being briskly but solemnly made. The whole of Agbovega was in a state confusion, uncertainty and grief. The mortal remains of Lumor were to be returned from Keta that day for burial. People who died the way Lumor died were not accorded normal funeral rites. They were not buried at the normal cemetery. They had a different cemetery. It was an abomination for a man to be beaten to death, just as it was for a man to die swollen, or after contracting deadly diseases like leprosy, dropsy and madness, or when a man was shot dead, or died from snakebite or lorry accident or committed suicide.

Such a person was not accorded normal funeral rites. Anybody who died in any of these ways was considered to have died an unnatural and an abominable death. They were therefore not buried where the ancestors were laid to rest. Such people would not become ancestors. Nor were their names mentioned when libation was being poured. It was believed among the people that, if a man died like that he should be buried in a contemptuous and dishonourable way, without drumming and dancing, without wake keeping, sometimes without a coffin and without any final funeral rites to shun this type of death.

This scornful treatment dissuaded other people from dying such deaths, or they came back to the earth again as reincarnated souls. Nobody cared to ask whether the victims of these kinds of contemptuous and dishonourable treatment, could have averted what destiny had for them or whether they were ordinary pawns in the hands of fate. Some people doubted whether the scornful burial the victims in check from dying any such death on coming back to the earth again. Some people believed and continued in the tradition of the forebears with much commitment.

That was how Lumor was to be buried. No formal funeral rites, no wailing and weeping.

Perhaps there would be only mourning and the gnashing of teeth. Lumor’s body was returned later in the day. A place was prepared for his body, at the out skirts of the village, where his mortal remains were to be laid in state. A fence of palm branches was erected and some palm branches were put on the ground. Lumor’s body was put on the palm branches on the ground.

No children were allowed there. From about 7.00 p.m. the people from the surrounding 10

villages began to arrive. Groups of elderly people invoked the spirits of the dead at the outskirt of the village through the pouring libation, solemnly sang a few funeral dirges and went to lay the remains of the late Lumor, to eternal rest at about 9.30 p.m.

When day finally broke out, the elders of the village gathered under the big tree in front of Torgbui Fomeaka’s palace to take stock of expenses. A few others, worn out with the wake they had kept, were beginning to depart for their villages. After the expenses were reckoned and paid, the elders discussed a range of issues. They deplored what was now happening on the Black Island. They recollected how in the past before the coming of the white man no such deed could go unpunished severely. But today, the white man who did not understand their norms and values and their ways of life, took the offender away without the required and necessary pacifications that went in to atone for the crimes committed against humanity and mother earth. They came ostensibly to save our traditional institutions from undergoing decay.

On the contrary, most of their activities had led to the destruction of norms and values and the traditional institutions of the Black Island. This is how they saved them from decay.

The elders cited the plight of chieftaincy to illustrate their rather pathetic case. In the days before the coming of the white man, chiefs were chosen and properly installed by the people over the people. Chiefs were hardly autocratic. They had very little or no real powers. All the elders took virtually every important decision, and the chief could not impose any thing on the people.

The role of the chief in society was largely ritualistic and ceremonial. He was

considered a man among men and an embodiment of the most admired of human virtues and as a symbol of unity among his people.

The chief was the link between the living on the one hand and the dead and the yet unborn on the other. He was peacefully and lawfully chosen, and properly installed to enable the contact with the spirit world to be established. He swore an oath of good conduct and was dedicated to the people. He was made to observe certain taboos. No chief could strike nor be struck. He never went bare footed nor did his bare buttocks ever touch the ground as long as he reigned.

He could be destooled if he went after the wives of his subjects or other women, or became a drunkard, or refused to listen to the elders or acted without prior consultation with the elders.

10

“But today, colonialists who neither knew nor understood our customs and beliefs, now appointed people they designated chiefs where they had hitherto not existed, and deposed legitimately chosen and properly installed chiefs, and planted in their places, men of doubtful ancestry. These colonialists designated ‘chiefs’, who swore no oaths and were responsible to nobody, were vested with unlimited powers. They now could strike but could not be struck, they went after women and they drank measurelessly whenever and wherever it pleased them.

They became mouthpieces of colonial rule and helped in recruiting the Black Islanders to work forcibly and the White man’s plantations and in his mines.” They regretted and gnashed their teeth helplessly.

“These were the same colonialists who left their homes beyond the mass of boiling salt water that stretched beyond the human eyes, on a pacification mission of the Black Islanders. Their mission had been confronted with another pacification mission embarked by mosquitoes of the Lower Volta, the symbolic representation of the gods, turning the battlefields of the pacifists into their graves. These same mosquitoes have had to run amok at unholy pairs of one boy, one girl, in streets of the Black Islanders pacifying a morally bankrupt generation from the effect and confusion created by pacification missions of the colonialists.” The old men lamented What was going to happen to Akpalu was known to nobody. It was rumoured that he would be hanged. Others said, the white man said so only to please the deceased family, and that Akpalu would be asked to work on the white man’s oil-palm plantation without pay. “If a man was allowed to have his head after depriving another man of his, would people not resort to removing their enemies only to become workers on the white man’s plantations”? The old men wondered and agreed that the colonialists’ ways had encouraged rather than prevented crime and they deplored the colonial rule with a fatalistic resignation.

10

C H A P T E R SEVENT E E N Agbui and his men arrived at Abe after along and tedious journey. Abe is near Lome, just by the salt water that kept boiling. It is this same mass of salt water that is seen at Keta. It did not end there, it went on and on down to Cape Coast and even beyond. As far as the human eyes cold see and even beyond. Some people said it spread to the white man’s hometown, whilst others said it was not possible for this mass of boiling tropical salt water to spread and stretch all the way to the white man’s home.

Agbui and his men had no difficulty locating the man in charge of the Aka Oracle. The Aka Oracle was what the islanders used to establish the guilt or innocence of a person, by requiring him to pass a physical test. This might involve waking through fire or the drinking of boiling palm oil. A man who was innocent never got burnt in both cases. Each suspect was required to produce on white hen, seven pieces of cola nuts and ten shillings. There was a set of three tests; walking through flames, drinking of boiling palm oil and finally the tossing of white hen into air. If walking through the fire or drinking the boiling palm oil burned a person, his guilt was established. But if he did not get burnt, then his innocence was declared. On the other hand when the tossed hen fell and died just in front of the suspect, his guilt was established but if it flew away, he was declared innocent.

Agbenyega undertook the test first. The fetish priest

recited some incantations and asked Agbenyega to give his version of the story and to swear by the gods. Agbenyega did. The fetish priest gave him the boiling palm oil and he drank it with ease, he threw the white hen and it flew away.

Akpaka then narrated his side of the story and swore by the gods. He threw the white hen and it fell just in front of him dead. He then refused to drink the boiling palm oil and accepted his guilt with shame. Some red liquid, a symbol of guilt and shame was poured on his head and it clotted up in his hair like blood. A person who returned from the Aka Oracle with red hair brought trouble and guilt. The old men would severely punish the person and make him compensate the innocent party. Calling someone a murderer and failing to prove it was severely punished among these people. It took a ram and many bottles of schnapps to atone such defamation. But now, a man upon committing a heinous crime would say “I put it to you”.

And a lot more to confuse people, simple and ignorant people, with very complex sentences, to 10

which one should say “Yes�, if one meant say one did not do the thing in question. And they would commit heinous crimes and go unpunished. Now a woman could terminate her pregnancy, even with the knowledge of her husband and get away with it, and say it was in response to modern family planning measures. This same couple would later blame God and curse Jesus for being childless. Nobody ever got away with such an act before the White man came to the Blank Island. Look at the confusion in which the white man had put our people.

Another colonial administration was centred in Lome. This administration was from a different white man’s country as compared with the one in Keta. They were all on pacification missions.

Strategy and degree of implementation were perhaps the only differences between them; their philosophies were the same. Those based in Lome, administered the affairs of their colonies directly from beyond the mass of boiling salt water that stretched beyond the reach of the human eyes. This was because they regarded their colonies as an extension of their hometown.

They adopted a policy of assimilation. They believed that their civilisation had reached its peak and the Black Islanders should be absorbed into this culture of excellence through education, Christianity, good conduct and logical thinking.

Their administration was also hierarchically structured with the president in their hometown, their national assembly and their council of elders at the top. There was a minister in charge of the colonies who was resident in their hometown, but was represented by a white governorgeneral on the Black Island in this hierarchical structure. The colonies were divided into regions or provinces, which were headed by white commandants.

Under the provincial

commandants were white commandants de circles; then came the black chiefs, popularly called le chef cantons, who administered the affairs of the colony at the local level.

The policy of assimilation resulted in the division of colonial people into citizens and subjects, with different rights, responsibilities and privileges. Citizens were those Black Islanders who were qualified by law to be regarded persons who were no longer primitive. Qualification by definition meant an acquisition of education, denunciation of traditional religion, acceptance of one man, one wife, and acceptance of Jesus Christ as the truth and the light. Subjects were those indigenous people who were regarded as human beings who needed to be pacified. They

10

were people who by description had not acquired any education, had not denounced traditional religion, nor accepted the practice of one man, one wife, nor accepted of Jesus Christ as the truth and the light.

A citizen enjoyed certain rights and privileges, like the right to vote and the right to be voted for; the right of representation of the colonial people in the White man’s national assembly; the right to be employed to work in the White man’s hometown or the assumption of a post and the right to marry a white woman or a white man.

The citizens were also exempted from the on spot punishment and forced labour. They also had the right to be educated in the White man’s hometown and paid taxes based on their incomes. Subjects were denied all the privileges and rights of the citizens. They had only responsibilities and obligations. They were subjected to indigenat, which was a system of onthe-spot discipline administered to subjects. They were denied the

right to participate in or

criticise government. They were subjected to the payment of huge sums of money in order to be exempted from forced labour. They were compulsorily conscripted into the colonial army.

They paid taxes, which were not based on their levels of income.

Some of the poorest European countries also took in the pacification mission. They forgot to start home, since charity begins at home. Their colonial policies were among the most brutal on the Black Island. They also instituted a system of forced labour, which was virtually a kind of slavery in Mozambique and Angola. Men and women were treated not as human beings, but as beasts of burden and they worked from morning till evening under the supervision of the local "chef do post". Under their system of assimilation, which was called the “Assimilado”, or "Civilizado" system, a Black Islander by the process of law was regarded a "white man" if he possessed certain standards and qualifications of the white man. The Assimilado policy was based on racial superiority of Whites and was meant to turn Africans into Europeans through Christianity, moral training and education.

10

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN On Monday, January 16, 1956, the Colonial Administration in Keta organised a forum to brief the chiefs and people of the Lower Volta on the work of the Colonial Administration, the third in a series of provincial briefings. The colonial administration was represented by a formidable line-up of Honourable members which included: The Deputy Speaker of the Gold Coast Legislative Council Hon. Sir Rickman Rowland; Leader of Official Members, Hon. Edward Rockefeller; DCs from the Gold Coast and a representative of the Governor.

In attendance were the following personalities and dignitaries:

Dr. De-Graft Cassava

Tamekloe, a renowned nationalist from the capital; Torgbui Fomeaka, Rev & Mrs. Abraham Johnson Amegah; Dumega Agbui Fomeaka and Margaret Dzatugbui. Other participants at forum included members of the clergy, civil servants, teachers, nationalists, students, and men and women from all walks of life.

The DC for Keta Mr. Williams-Stratford gave the welcome address in which he commented on the difficulty the British Empire was facing all over the world preparing colonial people for independence. The situation in his opinion became even more difficult when the aspirations of the people were perceived to be in conflict with the policies and plans of the colonial government.

He advised the chiefs and opinion leaders to be careful in balancing the

aspirations of the people with government policies where there were conflicts of interest.

The Deputy Speaker of the Gold Coast Legislative Council, Hon. Sir Rickman Rowland was the first to speak. He was eloquent and precise. He touched on the processes bills pass through in the Legislative Council before they became law. The Hon Member also mentioned some bills that the Legislative Council had passed. He stated that the first attempt at incorporating indigenous African institutions as local government units in the statutes of the Gold Coast was the passing of the Native Authority Ordinance in 1878. Between the passing of the abovementioned ordinance and 1944, 13 other Ordinances were passed to regulate the functions of native authorities. Some of these Ordinances included the Native Administration Ordinance of 1833; the Town Council Ordinance of 1894; and the Native Administration Ordinance of 1933.

10

In 1936, the Native Treasuries Ordinance legalised the importance of levies by traditional states provided they established treasuries.

He informed the participants that the Native Authority was under the careful control of the colonial government in the exercise of the powers given to it. He said it was the Governor who appointed the Native Authorities and all their rules and regulations were implemented only with his approval. He could revoke any of the laws at any time. The establishment of native treasuries and the imposition of any rates, fees, annual estimates or other forms of taxation also required the governor’s approval.

For example, if a Native Authority applied for the

Governor’s permission to impose a tax, it submitted for the approval of the Chief Commissioner; the amount payable by every individual, the persons to whom the tax was to apply, the purposes for which the tax was to be collected and the period within which the tax was to be collected.

He pointed out that the Native Authorities achieved some successes in the collection of taxes, the settlement of customary disputes, the provision of social amenities like good drinking water, latrines and the construction of schools and feeder roads. Native courts administered native laws and customary practices prevailing in their areas of jurisdiction so far as these laws were not repugnant to natural justice or morality or inconsistent with any provision of any other ordinance.

The Deputy Speaker of the Gold Coast Legislative Assembly Hon. Sir Rickman Rowland, noted that, other laws passed to improve the structure and functions of improve the administration in the Gold Coast were, the Native Authority (Northern Territories) Ordinance of 1932; the Native Administration (Togoland Southern Section) Ordinance 1933 and the Native Authorities Ordinances of 1935 and 1944 for Asante and the colony respectively.

He then dwelt at length on the children’s Rights/Marriage Bill. He read out a portion of the Bill, which puts the age for marriage at 18 years. Another clause, however, made provision for girls between 16 and 18 years to marry with the consent of their parents.

10

The second person to speak was the Leader of Official Members, Hon. Edward Rockefeller. He pointed out that when he arrived at Keta for the Forum “I saw Keta almost in the same state” and continued, “I can now understand why the DC has been forcefully putting your case for development across to the Government”.

The disappointment and anger from the chiefs and people of the Lower Volta at this Forum were so overwhelming. Perhaps in the history of colonial rule, never had so many people looked up to so few, for the accomplishment of so much by way of development projects, in return for so little. Akogolagba Aheto decried what he called the selective and discriminatory development-planning going on in the Gold Coast. He was particularly unhappy about the fact that there were no good roads in the Lower Volta part of the Gold Coast.

In reaction to the questions and comments from participants the “cat came out of the bag”.

“The priority of mining companies and other independent investors determined parts of the Gold Coast got certain roads”. This was what the delegation from the capital told the people of the Lower Volta, who were yearning for what they considered their fair share of the colonial development cake.

Their part of the Gold Coast was not on the priority list of mining

companies and other independent investors who were more interested in places better endowed with natural resources, like cocoa, timber, gold, diamond and bauxite.

At this point the worst fears of Dr. De-Graft Cassava Tamekloe for the Lower Volta were affirmed and confirmed. And the lamentation of King David of Israel upon the death of his friend, Jonathan, flashed through his mind. He corrupted the relevant verses to read: “O Lower Volta, thy development aspirations art slain upon thy high places. How are the mighty fallen. Tell it not at the Keta Forum. Publish it not in the streets of the other provincial capitals, lest the sons and daughters of the mining provinces of the Gold Coast rejoice!”

The issue of the priority of mining companies and other independent investors brought a member of the inky fraternity and reporter for the Gold Coast Dispatch newspaper, Wilhelmina Kokompe to her feet. She was quick in pointing out that the Lower Volta was a prominent producer of human resources, for example, it volunteered people into the West African Frontier

10

Force to fight in the first and second world wars, it contributed artisans who served in the development of the Gold Coast, it produced teachers, nurses and civil servants who worked for the colonial administration. She lashed the Department of Roads and Transport for not doing much for the Lower Volta in comparison with other provinces.

The lashing his Department had received from Wilhelmina was perhaps the last straw that broke the otherwise well intended silence of the Head of Department of Roads and Transport.

The Honourable Member might have thought, “I will not go sit down for those on the payroll of the nationalists to misinform the natives and other opinion leaders on the colonial administration”. He sprang unto his feet and pointed out that some of the views Wilhelmina expressed were based on lack of information. He stated that the fact that the Lower Volta was not on the priority list of mining companies and other independent investors did not mean it was absent from the development agenda of the colonial administration. He informed the Forum that the Accra-Aflao road had been awarded on contract. The reconstruction of the Denu –Ho-Asikuma road would be started as soon as negotiations on funding were concluded, the engineering drawings of the Adidome-Ho-Fume road had been completed and documentation for tender was far advanced for the award of contracts on the Jasikan-NkwantaYendi and the Nkwanta and Kete-Krachi roads.

It sounded impressive! But the people of the Lower Volta had adopted “seeing is believing” attitude to this type of colonial political talk. Their skepticism was understandable. How many times had they not heard about feasibility studies, engineering drawings, tender documentation, bills of quantities and the award of contracts in respect of these same roads but had never seen even a single bulldozer on any of them?

As Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah stood up to contribute, he recounted the pathetic story of the comparative neglect of the Lower Volta by the Colonial Government. The reverend stated that he was not against the development of other provinces in the Gold Coast, but said he was disturbed by the growing marginalisation of the province in development projects. He was compelled to state that he had personally suffered insults and insinuations at many forums because he was deemed to be a supporter of the colonial administration. Rev. Abraham

10

Johnson Amegah was emphatic that the chiefs and people of the Lower Volta have had very little in return for their loyalty to the colonial administration. On the Marriage Bill, the Reverend wondered what mischief the Bill was seeking to prevent. He wondered whether people who out of ignorance of the Bill, when it became Law, and those who would out of necessity give their daughters away in marriage before the legal minimum age would be prosecuted.

A contribution from a little girl from Keta Senior School, who was arguably below 18 years, concluded the debate on the age controversy at the forum. She asked the Honourable Deputy Speaker, three simple questions, which must have summed up the feeling of her peers on the matter. Question No. 1: Would the Hon. Member have given out his daughter at 16 years in marriage? Question No.2: Would he consent to looking after her and her prospective husband?

Question No 3: Would he have arranged for her to go back to school without embarrassment?

The Hon. Deputy Speaker said no to the three questions and pointed out that that was why the colonial Legislative Council had decided to consult the views of those to be affected by the Bill before passage. The Hon. Member stated that the Council was aware of the fact that on the average, most girls at 16 years are not psychologically, emotionally and physiologically mature to undergo the trauma of childbirth.

A sharp feeling of sadness overpowered Reverend Abraham Johnson Amegah as he listened to the “trial� of colonialism in the Gold Coast. He managed to discern three of these principles as he listened to the Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Council. The derivative principle namely; what was derived from the province receiving attention and the likely trickle-down effect it would have on the colonial economy, the population density and commercial activity, and the degree of deprivation suffered by the province to merit colonial priority attention. The forum ended at about 5.00 pm. Old clothing was distributed among the participants to send home. Dr. De-Graft Cassava Tamekloe was very much disappointed that he and the other nationalists were not allowed to speak at the forum even though they were invited. He saw it as a ploy to prevent nationalists’ views from being openly expressed in the very presence of the colonial authorities.

11

CHAPTER NINETEEN Dr. De-Graft Cassava Tamekloe had been invited by the Legon Hall of the University College of the Gold Coast to deliver a speech on the topic, ‘Leadership Responsibility and Constitutional Student Administration’ at their 5th Hall Week Celebration on Saturday, May 1956, as a prelude to their JCR Elections. Dr. De-Graft Cassava Tamekloe is a product of the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he took his first degree in Political Science in 1942, an MBA in Strategic Management in 1944 and a PhD in International Relations in 1948. He returned to the Gold Coast on the persuasion of Dr. (Dr.) Kwasi Badu in 1949, to join the struggle for self-determination and political independence. After a brief introduction Dr. De-Graft Cassava Tamekloe delivered his speech.

‘Mr. Chairman, the Dean of Students, the Senior Resident Tutor, Members of Faculty, aspiring JCR Executives, Leaders of Religious Groups, Members of the General Assembly, Students, Ladies and Gentlemen. It was with great pleasure that I accepted to honour the invitation to deliver a speech to mark the 5th Hall Week Celebration of Legon Hall today Saturday, May 25, 1956. I consider it a great challenge to be associated with the educational programmes for students of the only University College in the Gold Coast. A few years ago this privilege of having a university education in the Gold Coast was not possible. Anybody who took a degree either did so through a correspondence course or by traveling abroad. We owe this privilege to the vision and hard work of our forebears like Professor Kwaku Ananse, his illustrious son Dr. (Dr.) Nyansabekumwu Ntikumah, Nana Anomabu-Mensah, Nii Odartey Dugbatey, Torgbui Gbagbladza Wenya, Naa Ibrahim Yakobu, Lt. Col Modestus Ironhorse and the others.

Mr. Chairman, let me now proceed to share my thoughts and experiences with you on the topic “Leadership Responsibility and Constitutional Student Administration”. I propose to treat the topic under the following sub-headings: The State of Nature and Jungle Law; The Origin of Social Contract Theory and the Rule of Law; Student Administration and Responsible Constitutional Rule; Leadership Qualities and Strategies for Achieving Objectives, the Junior Common Room (JCR) Constitution and the Principle of Checks and Balances; and finally the University Statutes, Students’ Handbook and the Regulation for Students.

11

Permit me, Mr. Chairman, to refresh your minds with the relationship between constitutional rule and responsibility. Long, long time ago, men did not live in organised society regulated by rules and constitutional provisions as we have today. They lived under jungle law of might is right and the principle of the survival of the fittest called the state of nature. In this state of nature the individual did anything provided that he was strong enough to do it whilst the weak and vulnerable in society suffered callous inhumanity from the strong and powerful - including, torture, rape, slavery, forced labour and death. Men simply clubbed one another to death without provocation in self-defence. This was because you either killed or got killed. In this state of affairs, therefore, there was no peace and tranquility and men and women were in a state of perpetual warfare and fear of death. Life, as a result, was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.

Men and women were scared by the insecurity and chaos that existed; where jungle law prevailed and they began to yearn to live in organised society under the Rule of Law to ensure the protection of human rights and liberties.

People in organised society, surrendered their individual rights to defend and protect themselves as was the case in the state of nature, to a group of distinguished individuals or elected representatives who were to use the power so surrendered to form a more perfect union or society; establish justice; insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence and to promote the general welfare. This was how the authority to rule in organised society first began. All able-bodied adults participated in decision-making process. This was a kind of government of the people, by the people and for the people, as case was in the Greek City State of Athens. That is why any person holding power does so with the consent of those who surrendered the power, through voting. Rulers or leaders should therefore be responsible and accountable to those who surrendered power for their actions, inactions and omissions.

As a result of this social contract men began to live in organised society regulated by the rule of law. By the rule of law we mean three main issues: the supremacy of the law as established and adopted by the people, equality of all before the law, regardless of sex, race, religion,

11

social status, educational background and the protection and guaranteeing of fundamental human rights.

As student leaders, you are presumed and understood to have signed a Social Contract with the entire student body who elected you into power as JCR Executives. Those who elected you have a constitutional right to question your actions, inactions and omissions.

You are responsible and accountable to them in the pursuit of student interests and aspirations.

You would be praised when you do well, be criticised when you performed poorly, and may be removed from power, in accordance with laid down procedures, when you violate major constitutional provisions. Remember that the embarrassment of being removed from power for proven constitutional breaches could be traumatic and can emotionally destabilise you for a very long time.

Mr. Chairman, I am beginning to suspect that the aspiring JCR Executives are beginning to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of the responsibility they would be assuming.

As JCR

Executives, you have the heavy responsibility of using the power given you to ensure the rule of law. Law here refers to the JCR Constitution. It must be regarded supreme by all of you, and you must all be equal before the JCR Constitution in the pursuit of the legitimate aspirations of students.

In addition, you have the duty to protect weak and less articulate students and the responsibility to curb the excesses and adverse influences of domineering and aggressive students. You owe it a duty to increase opportunities on campus for students to achieve their academic ambitions and self-esteem. You should also help to abate threats to peace and tranquility in your Hall of residence and at the University College.

If I should ask you why you want to stand for the JCR election, you are likely to tell me that you possess certain qualities, which your colleagues recognise. This may be a wonderful selfjustification even if it is entirely erroneous. But let me warn you that in politics you win an election not so much because you are considered a paragon of virtue, but perhaps, you are the

11

one who people think they can readily and easily collaborate with or remarkably manipulate for the achievement of certain interests.

You cannot succeed as a JCR if you do not choose the appropriate leadership style. For example, are you going to be the authoritarian type who would assume you were elected to think for the students hence they have no right to think for themselves any longer? Or you would be the laissez-faire leader, who hates crisis and tries to satisfy everybody and be indifferent to certain crucial issues that affect the destiny of students? Or you will be the democratic leader who considers the needs, opinions and interests of all his people in the decision-making process? The choice is yours.

At any rate, never forget that a good leader should be able to: • Inspire • Listen to and learn from others • Recognise and acknowledge quickly your own mistakes • Control your temper and your emotions • Have totally objective relationships with your colleagues • Speak the truth and be honest • Accept the results are more important than who does what • Solve problems instead of avoiding them • Confront issues clearly and avoid deceit when seeking solutions to problems • Take blame when things go wrong • Praise others when they perform creditably • Think analytically and systematically and • Give and accept constructive criticisms.

To ensure dynamism in your administration, there should be mutual respect for each other and understanding among you. Everyone should appreciate his role and perform it to the best of his ability. A good leader should also possess effective communication skills, and must be good at listening to the opinion of others. He should also be quick in creating awareness and must be

11

fast at identifying the needs and legitimate concerns of those he leads. In addition, a good leader should know those who he is leading and obtain knowledge about: 

Friendships and animosities, their causes and how to counterbalance and redirect them towards achieving his objectives.



Quarrelsome people who perpetually seek to breach the peace and people who are advocates of peace.



Prevailing practices, norms, values, traditions etc. among his people and the history behind them, and how they can be used to promote the achievement of their objectives.

As aspiring JCR Executives you should not deceive yourselves into thinking that working in a group is always easy. This is because people are different in their emotional and mental composition and think and react differently to situations. Some individual students may be domineering, arrogant or aggressive and privy to the voice of reason particularly in crisis situations.

Some are PhD holders in trouble-mongering and destructive speculation.

A

visionary JCR should be quick in identifying such people in order to help redirect their energies to more productive ventures. Others are shy and reluctant to take up responsibility because they are afraid they might make mistakes.

The concept of separation of powers rests on the assumption that the three governmental powers and functions - the legislature (the General Assembly (G.A.)). The Presidency (JCR Executives) the Judiciary (the Judicial Committee of the JCR) should be separated and entrusted to different bodies or persons if the rights of the individual are to be guaranteed and protected. This is because as Lord Acton once said, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, hence no fallible human individual, should be allowed to hold and to exercise absolute powers. There must always be reasonable and legitimate restrictions on the exercise of power to guarantee the rights of the individual.

It is against this background that those who drafted the JCR Constitution introduced the element of checks and balances to ensure effective control of the pockets of authority in student politics. For example, you have a General Assembly, which is the highest decision-making body in student politics.

There is also an Executive Committee which formulates and

11

implements policy decisions for and on behalf of students and a Judicial Committee which gives final interpretation to the JCR Constitution in times of conflict and crisis as well as settles constitutional disputes among students. Finally you have an Electoral Commission, which ensures that the due processes of law are observed during the election of leaders. All these organs are very important because their effective use makes the difference between the state of nature and the rule of law.

By far the most controversial issue in the life of students on campus is the concept of “Tertiary Freedom”. An intimidating number of students tend to interpret or misinterpret “Tertiary Freedom” to simply mean the freedom to do anything, at anytime and anywhere. This is rather unfortunate and absurd because it borders on naivety and an oversimplification of the term. In all tertiary institutions, the country’s laws apply fully in addition to their own rules and regulations. Freedom in tertiary institutions goes with a corresponding responsibility.

Unlike secondary schools where students are under the constant and unrelenting control of draconian Headmasters and highhanded House masters, the tertiary system assumes that you are mature enough to appreciate the reasons for coming to the institution. You are therefore given all the Rules and Regulations for students and expected to comply with them. If you do not comply with them, you face the penalty for not doing so. It is unacceptable to plead ignorance as long as you have sworn the matriculation oath to obey them. Ignorance is no excuse before the law.

As students therefore it is imperative to acquaint yourselves with the power structure in the University College and how you should relate to each level. It is particularly important for all students to study the Rules and Regulations for students and the JCR Constitution.

For

example, you should know what conducts constitute major breaches of discipline and the penalties for breaching them. Some of the most serious breaches are, cheating in examinations, theft or stealing, assault, taking part in unlawful demonstrations or processions and insubordination to senior members and other staff of the University College. Penalty for serious breaches of these Rules and Regulations ranges from rustication to total expulsion from the University College.

11

Mr. Chairman, the Dean of Students, ladies and gentlemen, Plato, the great Greek philosopher, once said the “unexamined life, is not worth living”.

I therefore challenge you on this

memorable occasion of the 5th Hall Week Celebration of Legon Hall, to examine every aspect of your lives as students of the University College of the Gold Coast, because you bear ultimate responsibility for your actions and inactions.

Mr. Chairman permit me to digress a little to comment on the nationalist activities in the Gold Coast, since I cannot resist the temptation nor lose the opportunity to do so, as a foremost nationalist, at such a forum of intellectuals. Colonial rule is not a humanitarian mission to civilise primitive Africans, but an inhuman conspiracy contrived by Europeans to subjugate Africans. It is a mission of exploitation of man by man. It is our own inactions, indifference and the silence of the voice of justice that have allowed colonialism to triumph in Africa.

Mr. Chairman, The Dean of Students, The Senior Resident Tutor, Members of Faculty, aspiring JCR Executives, Leaders of Religious Groups, Members of the General Assembly, Students, Ladies and Gentlemen, before I conclude this speech, let me say that, we look forward to an ever-increasing measure of self-government in Africa. So that out of the horror and destruction of the WW II, we shall come to world of peace, security and social justice not for one people, not for one continent, but for all peoples of all continents of the world. We in the Gold Coast, demand self-determination now!

Thank you.’

There was a standing ovation for Dr. De-Graft Cassava Tamekloe by the students after he had delivered his speech. They started shouting: ‘Professor Cassava! Professor Cassava!! Professor Cassava!!! Professor Cassava!!!!’ The students were very happy about the speech he had delivered and requested that copies should be made available to all members of the Hall at the expense of the Junior Common Room (JCR) of the Hall. Some of the Students threatened to pond the Hall Executives if the request was not granted.

11

Jacob Mensah-Brown, a student of the Hall, shouted at the top of his voice that he would commit suicide if he was not given two copies of the speech so that he could bequeath one to his girlfriend as a monument to the memory of Dr De-Graft Cassava Tamekloe. He had to run away very quickly from the Forecourt of the Hall when one of the students declared that he should be ponded because he was a cheap man, an opportunist and an imperialist. In those days, it was simply dangerous not to take to ones heels if one was declared an imperialist. Such a declaration was enough for you to be ponded without trial. This was because imperialists were perceived to be the cause of their woes. Hence anybody who was deemed to be an imperialist was sentenced to ponding without trial.

11

CHAPTER

TWENTY

Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah remembered a story Dr. De-Graft Cassava Tamekloe told him about a mock trial that was staged by Legon Hall Law students of the University College of the Gold Coast to mark their 5th Hall Week Celebration. He was invited to deliver a speech on the topic, ‘Leadership Responsibility and Constitutional Student Administration’ on Saturday, May 1956, as a prelude to their JCR Elections.

The mock trial was titled ‘The Trial of the Holy Spirit ’. In this trial a suit was filed against the Holy Spirit by the Synagogue of Satan at the Court of Pontius Pilate, charged with seducing and impregnating the Virgin Mary, who was legitimately betrothed to Joseph the carpenter of Nazareth. The whole story of the mock trial was so intriguing and creative that he was full of admiration for the imagination of the Law students of the University College of the Gold Coast. He decided that he would share the story with his congregation at the earliest opportunity.

In the mock trial the prosecution, which was led by Professor (Emeritus) Judas Iscariot; and included Lord Lucifer and Professor Beelzebub, contended that contrary to Mosaic Law, which stated that: ‘Thou shall not commit adultery…. Thou shall not covert thy neighbour’s wife’, (Exodus 20: 14-& 17) the Holy Spirit went behind the back of Joseph the carpenter of Nazareth, the legitimate husband of the Virgin Mary, to seduce and impregnate the Holy Lady.

Angel Gabriel was also in the dock charged with complicity and the case.

Angel Gabriel, the prosecution argued, exercised undue influence on the Virgin Mary when he proclaimed: ‘Rejoice, highly favoured one, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women. Do not be afraid; for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of his father David.

And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end’ Luke 1: 28-33.

11

This hilarious salutation, like the salutation of the three witches to Macbeth that he would be king of Denmark, generated and doubly redoubled the Virgin Mary’s ambition to be become the mother of God. It also weakened her resolve to plead and insist that she was betrothed to Joseph the carpenter of Nazareth. The Virgin Mary replied: ‘How can this be since I do not know a man.’ The Angel Gabriel, capitalising on the Virgin’s lack of knowledge or noncommitment to the Mosaic Law, quickly proceeded to state: ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the highest will over shadow you.’

The Synagogue of Satan argued that the idea of the Holy Spirit coming upon her and over powering her constituted a violation of the Virgin’s freedom of association and human rights.

This is because she was over powered without her consent. Even if she was deemed to have consented, the consent should be declared null and void because she was legitimately betrothed under the Law of Moses, which was in force at the time of the act.

The prosecution further contented that there were several holy virgins in the line David in Nazareth at the time, who the Holy Spirit could have approached without breaking the Mosaic Law. The seduction and conception of the Virgin Mary, another man’s wife, was therefore a pre-meditated act willfully contrived to break the Mosaic Law. The Synagogue of Satan therefore pleaded with the Court to award damages to Joseph. The Synagogue of Satan also pleaded with Pontius Pilate for an amendment of the Trinity to a Quadruplinity so that it would now read: ‘In the name of the Father, the Son, Joseph the Carpenter of Nazareth and the Holy Spirit’; to right the wrong against the meek Joseph. The Synagogue of Satan further pleaded that Angel Gabriel should be bonded to be of good behaviour, stopped from corrupting innocent virgins and prevented from interfering in the affairs of those betrothed in marriage to humans.

The Synagogue of Satan stated that even though the Angel Gabriel knew his mission was an out right violation of the Mosaic Law, he agreed to embark upon it, without reminding God about the legal implication of the action. They pointed out that because impending cabinet reshuffle in Heaven then; Angel Gabriel wanted to be in the good books of God so that he

12

might get the coveted position of the Deputy God, which, Satan occupied before his expulsion from Heaven.

The defence counsel comprised a three-member legal team led by Angel Michael. The other members were Moses, the man who led the Israelites from Egypt to the outskirts of the Promised Land and John the Baptist. Moses was the first person to speak. He stated that he was the first person to have broken all the Mosaic Laws under provocation from the Israelites in the wilderness. He remained the Court that even though he was the person through whom the Mosaic Laws were given, he suffered death before he could get to the Promised Land because he broke all the Laws. The Mosaic Laws had ever since remained broken. It was therefore contrary to available records to say someone else had broken them. He said responsibility and punishment for breaking the Mosaic Laws had always been attributed to him Moses. He therefore pleaded with the Court to allow what belonged to Moses to be given to Moses. He contended that if Moses broke the Mosaic Laws, for which God punish him, no other person should be punished for them because they had always remained broken.

John the Baptist was the second defence counsel to speak. He stated that Jesus was his cousin when they incarnated here on earth. John the Baptist recalled that when the angel Gabriel departed from the Virgin Mary, she arose and went with haste to the hill country of Judah into the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth who was her relative. John the Baptist stated that he was only six months old in her mother’s womb but leapt with great joy because he was to be the forerunner to Jesus. He reminded the jury and indeed the Synagogue of Satan that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one and the same and can therefore not be separately sued because they are indivisible.

John the Baptist contended that the suit in its present form was a suit against God since the Holy Spirit was only acting for and on behalf of the Trinity. He pointed out that no human court, however well constituted, might try God. He therefore pleaded with the Court to dismiss the case of seduction and adultery against the Holy Spirit and the plea for an amendment to the Trinity as mischievous and blasphemous; and cost awarded against the Synagogue of Satan.

12

Angel Michael was the last defence counsel to speak in the trial. He stated that it is truth that the Holy Spirit impregnated the Virgin Mary. It is also true that the Angel Gabriel played a role in this divine drama as a messenger of God to bring the Good News. But the Angel Michael pointed out that the Court as constituted under Pontius Pilate had no jurisdiction to amend the Trinity to a Quadruplinity. The Angel Michael pointed out that since the case involved heavenly beings, it could not be tried under the Mosaic Law, which was meant for mortals on earth. He said he flew from Heaven to point out this fact to the Court. He reminded the jury that it was because of such conspiratorial manoeuvres that Satan and his followers were expelled from Heaven. He pleaded with the Court to acknowledge its own incompetence and lack of jurisdiction to hear the case.

There was cross-examination of the defence and prosecution witnesses. Mary was not in Court neither was her husband Joseph, the illustrious and celebrated carpenter of Nazareth.

In its ruling the Court stated that since God is an impartial God He is not likely to have one law for those in Heaven and another set for those on earth. Secondly since the actions of the heavenly beings directly impacted on human beings it was preposterous to say perpetrators should not be liable for their actions on earth. The Court stated that what was ordained on earth remained ordained in Heaven as well. The Court was there of the opinion that it was not God that was being tried but someone claiming to be acting for and on behalf of God, without reasonable proof, doing something that was contrary to the Mosaic Law, which was given by God himself.

The Court held that the Synagogue of Satan was unable to prove that the suit was filed with the consent of Joseph the carpenter, the legitimate husband of the Virgin Mary. And since Joseph was not a minor no such action could be filed without his expressed consent. The Court ruled that it was only Joseph the carpenter of Nazareth, the husband of Mary that can bring such an action against the Holy Spirit. The case was therefore dismissed as mischievous and without merit and a cost of 5,000 Denarius awarded against the Synagogue of Satan.

12

The audience hailed the mock trial as a brilliant exhibition of raw talents by the Law students, in readiness for the challenge of taking up leadership positions in legal issues of their country on the eve of its independence.

12

CHAPTER

TWENTY-ONE

Agbui Fomeaka was prevented from walking behind the Forte at Keta without removing his hat and without a pass. He thought it was an act of provocation to be prevented from passing there.

This gave him a compelling reason to say, "The Whites in Keta think that it was a mistake on the part of God to make the people of the Lower Volta. Their Policies are efforts to correct this divine error". One of the guards over heard him and reported him to the British supervisor and the Public Relations officer of the colonial administration at the Fort, Mr. Paul Greenwood, popularly called General Mosquito.

General Mosquito went mad with anger and instructed that Agbui should be given 24 lashes for gross disrespect. He was overpowered and stretched on a table like a common criminal, by six guards comprising Zida Katakrigoni, Gbedzeha Alagbo, Avudzivi Kpakpagloe, Gbologa Nyatefe, Agbavor Kokovena and Agblexorvuvu Aheto and given 24 lashes during which he passed urine and farted a couple of times. Thereafter, General Mosquito asked him to go home and sin no more.

Agbui did not know that it was a sin to challenge the White man openly. Nor did he know that he had to remove his hat before greeting the White man or needed a pass to walk behind a Forte built on his grandfather’s land. Agbui was traditionally not expected to remove his hat before greeting any body because he was the heir apparent to the Awadada Stool of the 37 villages. General Mosquito did not know this and the sycophantic guards did not tell him since he prided himself with knowing everything about Africa, particularly what he called ‘The primitive people of the Lower Volta.’

General Mosquito asked the guards what the hell his long name meant. The guards told him that the full name was ‘Agbui Fusese Benayetsia Avufeglamedorna’ and it meant, ‘Agbui the hard bone says he stays over night in a dog’s mouth.’ General Mosquito laughed hilariously at the meaning and said, ‘Primitive people carrying full sentences in the name of a name.

Unbelievable! He thinks that being a hard bone is a good enough reason for wanting to pass through a restricted security zone without clearing himself? I have diluted what makes him a hard bone. He will have a great story to tell when gets home.’

12

Agbui got home and narrated the story of his humiliation at the hands of the White supervisor at Keta. The whole town was thrown into a state of anguish and agitation. War drums were beaten for the whole town to assemble under the big neem tree in front of the Awadada’s (warlord) palace. Most people worn red banners and some were in red attires. The White man has humiliated the whole traditional area by publicly flogging Agbui, the heir apparent to the Awadada Stool of the 37 villages. The matter was carefully considered, but there was initially no consensus on what was to be done. Opinion was divided among them. There were two schools of thought. One was that they should declare war on the colonial administration in Keta. But somebody solicitously pointed out that it was not prudent to declare war on the dreaded colonial administration without the involvement of all the 37 villages. The same person noted that it was not clear whether the DC knew of treatment given to Agbui. If the 37 villages should go to war, then the decision to declare it must be a collective responsibility of the 37 villages.

The second school of thought proposed that the matter should taken to the god of Thunder at Nogokpo for arbitration, whereby Agbui could claim damages for his humiliation and the Awadada Stool pacified in atonement for the sacrilege committed against the people. Agbui was the heir apparent to the Awadada Stool; if General Mosquito did not know they should just allow the god of Thunder to educate him on the matter. Eventually, the second school of thought carried the day and a five-member delegation, including Agbui himself, was dispatched to Nogokpo to deal with the case.

When they got to Nogokpo the delegates held the necessary consultations with the priest of the god of Thunder, Torgbui Agbavor Beyedzeta Aviedi Amekuleafe Wotsoyi Agblevadi (The evil luggage commenced its journey and there was wailing, a person died at home but was taken to the farm for burial). The required items and cost were provided and a high level emissary from the god of Thunder was sent to the colonial administration to produce General Mosquito and the six guards that assisted him in administering the 24 lashes on Agbui in Keta.

12

The delegation got to Keta on Friday December 3, 1955, at 3.30 pm. The guards saw the emissary with the staff of the god of Thunder and reported to General Mosquito who was also the Public Relations Officer at the colonial office at Keta. The guards told him of the mission of the emissary. General Mosquito one again became furious and ordered the guards to burn the staff of the god of Thunder with petrol and give the emissary 24 lashes for insolence to a public officer in the colonial service of Her Majesty the Queen.

For fear of losing their jobs the six guards comprising, reluctantly stretched the poor emissary of the god of Thunder on a table like a common criminal and administered 24 lashes on his buttocks. General Mosquito told the emissary of the god of Thunder, to go home and sin no more. The six guards had a premonition that all was not going to be well with them. The emissary of the god of Thunder did not say anything. He did not curse. He simply walked away without looking back and with the others departed to Nogokpo. Nobody as far as their memories could allow ever treated the envoy of the god of Thunder like the way they were treated in Keta and lived beyond seven days to tell the story.

The DC’s organised an annual get-together for staff of the Colonial Administration on Friday December 10, 1955 at 2.30 pm. There were about 71 workers all neatly dressed in their best attires for the occasion. There was brass band music, much food and drinks. Everybody was very happy. The DC was getting ready to give his speech when some one observed that the clouds were gathering and that it might rain. It was unusual for it to rain around this time of the year. In about 15 minutes the clouds had become heavy and a strong wind began to blow amid thunder and lightning. All of a sudden, there was a terrific explosion of thunder and lightning that caused a very thick cloud of smoke to cover the whole place. The generator got blown out and the lights went off. There was a scramble for survival and stampeding to safety. The watchman and the gate man brought their flashlights. When the smoke cleared it was discovered that the thunder had killed seven people:

the six guards comprising, Zida

Katakrigoni, Gbedzeha Alagbo, Avudzivi Kpakpagloe, Gbologa Nyatefe, Agbavor Kokovena and Agblexorvuvu Aheto as well as Mr. Paul Greenwood, alias General Mosquito, the Public Relations Officer of the Colonial Administration. The poor victims of the blast lay miserably on the ground with blood oozing out of their noses. It was a terrible and a horrible spectacle to

12

behold, as they lay lifeless in pools of blood. Seven thunderbolts were found, one beside each victim.

The staff members of the Colonial Administration began to speculate on why only the six guards who lashed the envoy of the god of Thunder and their zealous instructor should be the only people to die. What was even more baffling was the fact that they sat at different places during the party. It was at this point that the DC heard of what happened to Agbui and the emissary of the god of Thunder. An elderly man advised the DC to send for the priest of the god of Thunder before anybody could touch any of the dead bodies. Some one suggested that Rev. Abraham Johnson Amegah should be brought to handle the matter the Christian way. But when the man was consulted he declined the invitation saying that, what belonged to Caesar should be given to Caesar. The only option was the priest of the god of Thunder, Torgbui Agbavor Beyedzeta Aviedi Amekuleafe Wotsoyi Agblevadi (The evil luggage commenced its journey and there was wailing, a person died at home but was taken to the farm for burial), who came at around 12 o’ clock midnight to perform the necessary purification rites in atonement of the god of Thunder. The seven victims would not be buried at a cemetery in Keta or any other cemetery. It was against the god of Thunder for its victim to be buried at a cemetery. Such victims were always buried in the evil forest dedicated to evildoers that have been punished by the god of Thunder. This explains the name of the priest of the god of Thunder: ‘The evil luggage commenced its journey and there was wailing; a person died at home but was taken to the farm for burial’. The evil forest was the farm and cemetery for burying evildoers who were killed by the god of Thunder.

The DC was confused. He could not understand how people who were alleged and believed to have offended a god could be electrocuted through thunder and lightning targeted at only the culprits. Whether it was scientific, telepathic and supernatural or just a sheer coincidence he could not tell. One thing was however clear, the thunder killed only those who were known to have participated in committing the sacrilege. How could this be attributed to sheer coincidence? It would be an unimaginable degree naivety and hypocrisy to say that the killing of seven individuals guilty of sacrilege from among a group of 71 people was a mere coincidence. Mosquitoes and the nationalists have stood in the way of efforts to bring

12

civilisation to this part of the world. Now it has become clear that there was a more deadly resistance to the pacification of the primitive tribes of the Lower Volta, in the name of a god of Thunder, which could be deployed to cause havoc if the needed caution was not exercised.

The balance of power was now getting to equilibrium. The natives must not be encouraged to used super natural powers. It is morally wrong and evil to do so. The missionaries must be supported and encouraged to reach out to the hinterland and win the primitive people of the Lower Volta for Christ, the DC soliloquized.

He was going to write a book on the god of Thunder and its ability and capacity to tele-guide electro-ballistic-missiles at culprits. The title of the book will be: ‘The Power of ElectroBallistic-Missiles among the Primitive People of the Lower Volta’. He wondered how a group of primitive people could deploy electro-ballistic-missiles unguided by satellite and yet hit its targets with such amazing precision. This is precisely what the Americans and the Russians have been grappling with for ages without the kind of results this god of Thunder has demonstrated it is capable of achieving. Perhaps the Americans and the Russians should simply move to Nogokpo, in the Gold Coast, for new lessons in the development and deployment of electro-ballistic-missiles. What the Americans and the Russians have spent trillions of dollars of resources trying to achieve, these unlettered natives could do with a few herbs and incantations. Incredible!

The DC accepted responsibility for performing the pacification rites at Nogokpo and the payment of compensation to Agbui for the humiliation he suffered at the hands of the late Paul Greenwood. The DC sent some native elders to do the rites on behalf of the Colonial Administration. It was not prudent for him to go there in person, for it would be a bad example and a moral defeat to the pacification mission of the primitive tribes of the Lower Volta.

12

AUTHOR’S PROFILE Simon Amegashie-Viglo was born on 15th August 1958, in Ho to Ghanaian parents with roots in Keta, Atiavi and Lume-Agbedrafor on his father’s side and Anyako and Asafotsi, on his mother’s side, all in the Volta Region of Ghana. The very first six years of his life were spent at Agotime-Agbovega, popularly called Kposukope, a remote farming village, in the South Agotime Prefecture of the Republic of Togo, between Agotime Kpetoe in Ghana and Amusukodzi in the Republic of Togo.

He is a product of the following institutions of learning: 

Obanda Prim. & Mid Schools, September 1965 - June 1974

•

Nkwanta Secondary School, November1974 - June 1979.

•

Kadjebi Secondary School, December 1979 - June 1981.

•

University of Ghana, Legon, (Nov1982) BA (Hons.) in Pol. Science, June 1986.

•

University of Ghana, Legon, (Oct 1990) M. Phil. in African Studies Sept 1994.

•

GIMPA, Achimota, Accra, Certificate in Strategic Management, July 2003.

•

Kwame Nkrumah University of Sci. & Technology, Kumasi, EMBA, June 2009

Simon Amegashie-Viglo has held the following positions: •

Senior Lecturer, Ho Polytechnic June 2007 to date

•

Dean of International Programmes October 2010 to Date

•

Lecturer at Ho Polytechnic from March 1996 to June 2007.

•

The Head of the Department of Liberal and General Studies from March 1996 to May 2007.

•

National General Secretary of POTAG, from September 1997 to October 1999.

•

Convocation Representative to Ho Polytechnic Council, April 1996 to Feb 2000.

•

Secretary to Ho Polytechnic Council, Oct 1997 to June 1998

•

The Vice Principal of Ho Polytechnic from March 2001 to July 2005.

•

Consultant to the Ho Branch of CERAD International, an NGO with headquarters in Lome, Republic of Togo from February 1999 to December 2001.

•

Co-opted Team Member, Japan International Agency (JICA) Study for the Development of a Master Plan to Strengthen Technical Education in the Republic of

12

Ghana: Pilot Programmes & Pilot Polytechnics Survey Report and Questionnaires (May 2001).

•

The Co-ordinator, EZE of Germany-Ho Polytechnic Regional Workshop on Effective Vocational Skills Training April 2000.

•

Co-authored ‘The Triple Heritage of Contemporary Africa’ (2004), with the Very Reverend Professor Dzobo.

•

Represented the Polytechnics of Ghana, at the UNESCO First African Workshop on Building Capacity in Technological Entrepreneurship in Higher Institutions, at The Pan-African University in Lagos, Nigeria, March 4-15, 2005.

•

Author ‘Political Economy of Colonial and Post Colonial Africa, (2009) ISBN: 9789988-0-9722-6

•

Married to Mrs. Monica Amegashie-Viglo, with three children; Elikem, Senanu and Dzifa.

The Trial of General Mosquito is a trial of colonialism in West Africa. General Mosquito symbolises colonial rule, colonial policies and philosophy. There are four trials in the novel.

The first one is the trial of Awadada Agbui Fomeaka, by the colonial administration in Keta, which depicts corruption and manipulation of justice under colonial rule. The second trial is the trial of God by Rev. Johnson Abraham Amegah, when he was faced with the vicissitudes of life and was wondering whether God is indeed all knowing and merciful. If He is, why does he allow so much suffering? The third trial is the mock trial of the Holy Ghost, for seducing the Virgin Mary, who was betrothed to Joseph the carpenter of Nazareth. The fourth and final trial is the trial of Paul Greenwood, the colonial administrator of Keta, who was popularly called General Mosquito, for committing sacrilege The novel is loaded with prejudice, stereotyping, satire and nationalist agitation for emancipation from colonial domination. The resistance and disapproval of the ‘primitive tribes of the Lower Volta’ to colonial rule is symbolised by mosquitoes who declared war on the colonial authorities, supported by the god of Thunder, which strikes General Mosquito, the symbol of colonial rule, and his six guards to death for committing sacrilege against the people.

The setting cuts across present day Southern Volta Region and Southern Togo, during colonialism by the British and the French. The Trial of General Mosquito is a novel you

13

cannot put down until you get to the last sentence, because the author adopts a free flowing language punctuated with a whimsical sense of humour.

13